Developed in partnership with Education Services Australia

The Australian Curriculum sets the goal for what all students should learn as they progress through their school life. Skills in the Year 1-2 curriculum include:

• solving problems using halves and quarters and, later, eighths
• recognising and describing halves and quarters and eighths as two, four and eight equal parts of a whole
• using objects, pictures and written fractions to represent halves and quarters and eighths
• recognising and interpreting common uses of halves, quarters and eighths of shapes and collections.

It’s easy to help your child practise these skills as part of everyday life – just use these simple ideas.

Cut and share

Food time is often a great chance to build in some practice with fractions, as most children are motivated to make sure that treats are shared evenly! Ask your child to do the sharing/cutting, or to supervise you and make sure you get it right. Then practise:

• cutting up a whole thing into halves/quarters/eighths (eg a pizza or cake). How many pieces should there be?
• sharing many whole pieces between 2, 4 or 8 people (eg nuts or lollies). How many should each person get?
• cutting and sharing multiple things between 2, 4 or 8 people (eg two quiches between four people). How should you cut the pieces? How many pieces should each person get?
• putting fractions back together with the Whole Circle game:
  Start with four paper circles.
  Cut two circles into halves and two circles into quarters (creating twelve pieces in total).
  Now take turns to flip a coin – heads means the player gets a half-circle piece, tails means they get a quarter-circle.
  The first player to create two whole circles with their pieces wins.

Go online

For online reinforcement, Alien fractions will give your child practice at:

• understanding fractions (halves, quarters and eighths).

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