This displays the Getting started on page 161 of the Student Resource Book.

• This activity reminds students that fractions are always equal pieces of a whole.
• Teachers could use this activity to stimulate discussion about the relationship between halves and quarters, and the number of pieces that make a whole.

This displays two sheets with a copy of the fraction wall from page 167 of the student book. The second sheet includes some questions that may be helpful for promoting discussion.

• You could use either or both sheets to support students’ understanding of the tool. Beginning by asking students what they notice is an open-ended way to focus and gather ideas from all students about the model before they begin to use it. Their responses will reveal their understandings or misunderstandings about fractions that they already have and provide a starting point for subsequent discussion.
• You might wish to model or give students the opportunity to write some equations of their own about the wall, for example ½ + ½ = 1 whole or ¼ + ¼ = ½.
• Fraction walls can also be used for practice at skip counting fractions 1/5, 2/5, 3/5, 4/5, 5/5 or 1 whole.
• You could photocopy the fraction walls onto card for each student, or alternatively students could create their own fraction walls from equal-sized strips of paper. Fraction wall - Empty
• Fraction walls are also useful as a manipulative tool if they are cut out so that students can compare and rearrange the pieces to explore the relative sizes of fractions (ordering), addition and subtraction of fractions, and fractions greater than one.

This displays a sheet that shows how halving can be used to divide a block of chocolate with 16 squares between 4 friends.

• Unifix cubes (or similar blocks that join to make a group) are useful materials to help students transition from regions to sets. Encourage students to use blocks of colour rather than random or unrelated colours so that they can identify parts clearly.
• Teachers could highlight for students how the size of each group halves when the number of equal-sized pieces doubles, if students don’t raise this point themselves.

This displays a sheet that allows students to use what they know about finding the whole from fractions of shapes to find fractions of a set.

• If students are having difficulty establishing the whole of a set from a part, asking how many parts are needed to make a whole will indicate whether students have the knowledge about fractions that they need to answer this question. If they can make this connection, they are usually able to find the answer without further support.
• If students still struggle, encouraging them to model each problem with beads on an appropriate fraction circle may help. The partitioning of the shape assists students’ visualisation of the number of pieces represented by the denominator, and therefore the repetitions needed to complete the whole.

This displays a sheet with further word problems that asks students to decide which fraction is larger.

• Students could draw pictures, cut up paper models, or use a fraction wall to help solve these problems.
• You could encourage students to work through the problems independently and then ask them to share and justify their answers with a partner.
• Students who look only at the denominators of the fractions in question 2, rather than the problem or the pictures, might answer this question incorrectly. Discuss with students why the wholes need to be the same size if directly comparing fractions. Ask them to give similar examples to consolidate this understanding, for example, ¼ of the water in a swimming pool will be more than ½ of a glass of water.