Fractions! Some people love them, some people hate them, but they play a key part in maths learning in each year group and are one of those things in maths that are quite useful for everyday life.
In this blog I’m going to cover:
Tenths will be a whole new fraction for year 3 children so they will need lots of practise to understand what it is; essentially one whole divided into 10 equal parts. They will get to grips with counting up and down in tenths (past 10/10) and they will also look at what tenths look like as decimals.
So what questions are useful to ask your children?
How can I make learning about tenths fun?
Just click here for a fun and practical way to learn about and understand tenths.
This needs to be done as practically as possible for children to understand what finding a fraction of amount is all about. My go to resource is Playdoh and I’ve put together a ‘how to’ activity here.
I’ve also got a digital download available to buy which I’ve paired with the activity above. Click here to download the game cards and take a look at the video below to see how I play the game:
Children often find equivalent fractions difficult to get the hang of, and rightly so! They involve fractions which look different but are worth the same amount and finding equivalent fractions also involves a good knowledge of times tables. In Year 3, children will work very practically to find equivalent fractions, using things called Cuisenaire or number rods, strips of paper and fraction walls.
Here’s one practical way of finding equivalent fractions using a mince pie container and some counters!
This is a lot easier than it looks and sounds, especially when you are adding and subtracting fractions with the same denominator. All you do is add or subtract the numerators (top numbers):
As always, it’s even more fun to practise this skill by playing a game and ‘Fraction Run’ or ‘Fill the Pancake’ are just the games for this!
This is all about knowing which fractions are bigger and which are smaller and this is confusing! With fractions, the smaller the denominator, the larger the fraction, which is difficult for children to comprehend as they are so used to ordering numbers from smallest to largest. In year three, children will only be expected to order and compare what we call unit fractions (fractions which always have 1 as a numerator, e.g. 1/2, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6) or fractions which have the same denominator (1/8, 2/8, 3/8, 4/8, 5/8).
My advice for year 3 children will be to explore fractions extremely practically, they need to understand what fractions are and the different size of them before they can answer questions on paper. Try out this activity using paper plates (or circles) to help understand equivalent fractions, but also it will help them to see the different sizes of fractions.
6. Solve Fraction Problems:
For each topic in maths, children are expected to use their knowledge of what they have learnt to solve problems. Reasoning is also a key part of maths learning which involves children talking about the maths and how they got their answer/explaining how something works. Some good question prompts for reasoning that you could use at home are:
For a card game to revise some of the key things about fractions (numerator, denominator, equivalents and adding/subtracting) just click here, download and play. Make sure you select the correct year group for your child as I have tailored the questions to suit what they will learn at school.
The best thing you can do at home is talk about the maths as you’re playing using some of the questions above. Talking about it, playing games and using hands-on activities will enable children to have a good understanding of fractions and will then make them more confident to answer problems about them.
