These exercises and activities are for students to use independently of the teacher to practice number properties.
- Ordering unit fractions (exercises 1 and 2)
- Ordering non-unit fractions (exercises 3 to 5)
- Number Sequence and Order, AA (Stage 6)
- Number Sequence and Order, AM (Stage 7)
- Practice exercises with answers (PDF or Word)
- Homework with answers (PDF or Word)
Prior knowledge.
Students should have completed the activity ‘fair shares’ Book 7, Fair Shares
Background
Ordering unit fractions and non-unit fractions, without using equipment involves quite different skills, and are found at different stages of the knowledge framework. A useful introduction to sorting non-unit fractions is to develop students’ strategies for identifying when a fraction is close to one (eg is close to one as there is only 1 little piece missing from a whole) or zero. Likewise for fractions below or above one half (for example 2/5 is less than one half as in one half, the denominator is double the numerator. In two fifths, doubling 2 gives a number smaller than the denominator).
Comment on the Exercises
Exercise 1
Asks students to identify the bigger fractions in a pair.
Exercise 2
Asks students to order 3 unit fractions from smallest to biggest.
Exercise 3
Asks students to identify the bigger fraction in a pair. Fractions are halves, quarters, thirds, and fifths.
Exercise 4
Asks students to order 3 fractiosn from biggest to smallest. The fractions are halves, quarters, thirds, and fifths.
Exercise 5
Asks students to solve word problems that involve identifying the largest fraction.