Tasty Fractions!

During their maths learning this term, our Year 0 and Year 1 girls have been exploring the beginnings of proportional thinking, introducing division, fractions and the associated language - considering the ‘whole’ of an object, ‘part’ of an object, ‘equal parts’ and their mathematical names, notably ‘halves’ and ‘quarters.’

Understanding fractions underpins many of the mathematical concepts that the girls will go on to learn and so it’s important that these early building blocks are well consolidated.

There are many ways to teach fractions, some more successful than others and the final unit of the term was most definitely a successful, as well as tasty, one! Learning is greatly helped if fractional analogies are used that students identify with – like the equal sharing of a pizza!

Visual learning greatly helps and having earlier cut paper shapes in half, the girls were already familiar with ‘dividing’ the paper into two. Most children are familiar with the sharing of food and if it’s something tasty, quickly know whether the division has been equal or not! With the help of some willing mothers, the girls went to the Food Technology room to create a pizza between two. A bamboo skewer was laid across the base and measured to make sure it was even before each girl selected their own pizza toppings. It was interesting to note the distinct difference in toppings between the halves!

A patient wait while the mums watched the pizzas in the ovens and then the girls were back to cut their shared pizza, taking their own half and cutting it in half again.