Fractions - Find a quarter - Presentation

In a mathematics lesson centred around fractions, students are introduced to the concept of finding a quarter of a shape. The term 'quarter' is explored, prompting students to consider where they have heard the word before and to discuss its meaning. A quarter is defined as one of four equal parts of a whole, with emphasis on the parts being equal in size. To illustrate this, a circle is shown with one of its four equal segments coloured red. This visual representation aids in cementing the understanding that a quarter signifies a division of something into four parts that are the same size. The lesson encourages students to engage with the material by discussing and identifying quarters in various shapes.

Following the introduction, students are invited to participate in hands-on activities to further explore quarters. They are asked to fold square, circular, and rectangular pieces of paper into four equal and four non-equal parts to visually and tactilely grasp the concept of equal divisions. The activities prompt students to recognise and count the equal parts, modelling the counting in terms of quarters. Subsequent tasks include colouring a quarter of each shape in different ways and ticking the shapes that have been correctly divided into quarters. The lesson also incorporates reasoning exercises where students evaluate statements about quarters and use squares to demonstrate less than, exactly, and more than a quarter shaded. Finally, independent work reinforces the learning objectives, challenging students to split shapes into quarters using a ruler and to assess the correctness of given statements about fractions.