Fractions - Find a half 2 - Presentation

In a structured lesson on fractions, specifically focusing on finding a half, students are engaged in a series of activities designed to deepen their understanding of halving quantities. The lesson begins by encouraging students to discuss the concept of a whole being divided into equal parts and to complete a stem sentence that explains how to find one half. The term 'quantity' is clarified as meaning 'amount' or 'how many there are', and students are presented with different quantities of objects, such as 4, 2, and 8, to visually comprehend the division into halves. The key concept reinforced is that a half signifies one of two equal parts, and this understanding is applied to various objects to ensure that equal amounts are present on both sides.

As the lesson progresses, students are tasked with finding half of given amounts, including numerical values and monetary sums, such as 12, 6, 4, 40p, and 20p. They are guided to complete stem sentences to articulate their findings clearly. Further activities involve halving physical quantities such as beads, marbles, sweets, cubes, sheep, and umbrellas, with the aim of reinforcing the practical application of the concept. In addition to these exercises, reasoning tasks challenge students to consider different ways to shade one half of a shape and to discuss the difficulty of finding a half of an odd number. Independent work and group discussions prompt students to use counters, shade squares, and verify their results, ensuring they understand that when objects are split in half, they should result in two equal parts.