Many students struggle with fractions throughout elementary and middle school, so it is important that students have a thorough understanding of what fractions are, estimating and comparing amounts visually and numerically, and recognizing reasonable answers. Storyboard That will make learning fractions fun!
Denominator size - Introduction to Fractions Activities
Storyboard Text
1 WHOLE PIZZA
2 HALVES OF A PIZZA
4 FOURTHS OF A PIZZA
8 EIGHTHS OF A PIZZA
Ji Yun decides she wants to eat a whole pizza.
Thank goodness Ryan shows up! Ji Yun didn't think she could eat the whole pizza by herself. She gives him 1/2 of it. What big pieces!
Then Adam and Imran arrive and each person can have 1/4 of the pizza.
Not so fast! With four more people wanting food, eight people each eat 1/8 of the pizza.
In fraction terms, the entire pizza is written as 1/1. 1 part from a whole with 1 piece.
When we cut the pizza into two equal pieces, the pieces are each worth 1/2 of the whole. 1/2 is 1 part from a whole with 2 pieces. (1/2 + 1/2 = 2/2)
With more pieces, the pieces have to be smaller to make the same amount. 1/4 is 1 part from a whole with 4 pieces. (1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 + 1/4 = 4/4)
The denominator, or total number of pieces, gets bigger as the size of each piece gets smaller. 1/8 is 1 part from a whole with 8 pieces. (1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 = 8/8)