Year 6 fractions

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Azure
Posts: 107
Joined: Thu Apr 04, 2013 9:19 am

Year 6 fractions

Post by Azure »

DC had following question. All the others he could find equivalent fractions for but this stumped him. I told him to find the decimal, which worked but got into some fiddly long division I did not think a year 6 would be asked to do. Is there another way to find out this answer?

Which is bigger 1/3 or 24/32

Any help can you offer?
yoyo123
Posts: 8099
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:32 pm
Location: East Kent

Re: Year 6 fractions

Post by yoyo123 »

If you reduce 24/32 to 3/4 , it makes it much easier to compare them. (think of that proportion of a circle coloured in)

You can convert both to 12ths

1/3 =4/12 3/4 = 9/12
Azure
Posts: 107
Joined: Thu Apr 04, 2013 9:19 am

Re: Year 6 fractions

Post by Azure »

O ok yoyo123. Thank you. I think he is not used to simplifying one down and the other up. I will tell him to look out for all options. Thank you.
moved
Posts: 3826
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2007 1:42 pm
Location: Chelmsford and pleased

Re: Year 6 fractions

Post by moved »

This one is a nice proportion question too - 1/3 is less than a half and 24/32 is more than a half.

It is good to get children to think of what the numbers represent as this will help with future ordering questions.
Azure
Posts: 107
Joined: Thu Apr 04, 2013 9:19 am

Re: Year 6 fractions

Post by Azure »

Yes that is actually how he got his answer but I wanted him to know how to work it out and it was getting so fiddling.
parent2013
Posts: 452
Joined: Mon Aug 12, 2013 10:13 am

Re: Year 6 fractions

Post by parent2013 »

Azure wrote:DC had following question. All the others he could find equivalent fractions for but this stumped him. I told him to find the decimal, which worked but got into some fiddly long division I did not think a year 6 would be asked to do. Is there another way to find out this answer?

Which is bigger 1/3 or 24/32

Any help can you offer?

1/3 means 11/33
Any day 24 out of 33 is better (bigger) than 24 out of 32.
southbucks3
Posts: 3579
Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2012 11:59 am

Re: Year 6 fractions

Post by southbucks3 »

They want him to simplify the second fraction rather than find a common denominator. :D
moved
Posts: 3826
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2007 1:42 pm
Location: Chelmsford and pleased

Re: Year 6 fractions

Post by moved »

In my recent assessments of yr 6 children many of them converted all fractions in an ordering task rather than 'looking' and using common sense to eliminate the obvious candidates.

For a question where the fractions are obviously smaller / larger children should think before they automatically start to calculate. Reasoning is a vital mathematical skill.
UKGarfield
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Oct 11, 2014 5:17 am

Re: Year 6 fractions

Post by UKGarfield »

If your DC doesn't want to simplify the fraction or find a common denominator, one can simply cross-multiply.

Numerator of first fraction (1) x denominator of second fraction (32) = 32, assign this number to fraction which numerator is used (1/3)
Numerator of second fraction (24) x denominator of first fraction (3) = 72, assign this number to fraction which numerator is used (24/32)

the bigger the product, the bigger the value of the fraction, which is 24/32 in this case!

Hope this helps. :D

Note: this method works for comparing two fractions at a time.
Guest55
Posts: 16254
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: Year 6 fractions

Post by Guest55 »

UKGarfield - your suggested 'method' is not appropriate for this question.

This question is designed to see who can spot one is bigger than a half and the other isn't; it's a great question! It really tests understanding not remembering a method.
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