What are Fractions?
Imagine you have a whole pizza. You cut it into two equal slices.
Each slice is one half, or 1/2, of the pizza.
That's a big slice 🤤🍕😍!
1/2 is a fraction. 👍
A fraction shows how many parts of a whole you have.
Now imagine you have a whole chocolate bar. You cut it into three equal parts.
Each part is 1/3, or one third, of the whole chocolate bar.
1/3 is a fraction. 👍
👉 Now, imagine you have a whole rectangle, and you divide it into four equal sections.
Each section is 1/4, or one fourth, of the whole rectangle.
1/4 is a fraction. 👍
Every time we divide a whole into equal parts, we make a fraction. 😀
Parts of a Fraction
A fraction has two parts: the numerator and the denominator.
The number above the fraction bar is called the numerator. 👆 It shows the number of parts you have.
The number below the fraction bar is called the denominator. 👇 It shows the total number of equal parts the whole is divided into.
🥧 Let's say you have 3/4, or three fourths, of a pie. 😋
How many parts is the pie divided into? 😀
Correct! It's divided into 4 equal parts. 👍
How many parts do you have?
Yes! You have 3 of the 4 parts. 👍
Sometimes it helps to use models, or drawings, to represent fractions. 😀
We can use an area model, a bar model, or a number line model.
Let's create an area model for 3/8.
👉 First, draw a rectangle to represent the whole.
Tip: The rectangle is most commonly used when creating area models, but other shapes can be used too.
👉 Then divide the rectangle into the total number of parts.
How many parts should we divide it into? 🤔
Correct! Into 8 parts. 👍 We look at the denominator, or bottom number, to know the total number of parts.
Make sure that the size of the parts are all equal.
👉 Next, shade the parts that we have.
Look at the numerator, or top number, to know how many parts we need to shade.
For 3/8, we need to shade 3 parts.
Tip: It doesn't matter which 3 parts are shaded. We just need to make sure that we shade the correct number of parts.
Our area model is done! 😀
This is how a bar model for 3/8 looks like.
Notice that the bar is divided into 8 equal parts.
3 out of the 8 parts are shaded. 😀
Number Line Model
We can also create a number line for 3/8.
We draw a line and divide it into 8 equal parts.
We count 3 parts from 0, and shade this part of the line.
That's it! 👍 Great job! 🎉
Wasn't it fun reviewing fractions? 😀
Now, try the practice. 💪