Fractions - Unit fractions - Presentation

In this engaging lesson, Year 5 students delve into the world of unit fractions. The session begins with a review of fundamental concepts, asking students to recall the definitions of a numerator and a denominator. This sets the stage for the main objective: learning to recognise unit fractions. Students are encouraged to engage in discussion and analyse bar models to identify similarities and differences. In one activity, they observe that while the bars are equal in size and each has a single shaded part, the number of subdivisions within the bars varies, leading to parts of different sizes. This visual representation helps students grasp the concept of unit fractions in a concrete manner.

Moving forward, the lesson involves a series of activities designed to deepen understanding. Students are asked to identify the shaded unit fraction in different diagrams, match unit fractions to their corresponding pictures, and complete sentences that reinforce the inverse relationship between the size of the denominator and the fraction itself. Reasoning exercises challenge students to apply their knowledge to true or false statements and to solve problems using cubes or bar models, such as determining which fraction of a number is greater. Independent work tasks include writing fractions in words, representing them in bar models, and identifying the shaded fraction of various objects. The lesson concludes with a discussion on different ways to represent unit fractions, their significance, and a comparison of their sizes when the whole remains the same.