Fractions: Equal Parts

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

You may have looked at that cupcake right away and said it was unfair to split it that way.

The person who would get the piece on the left would get more than the person on the right. That isn’t a fair way to split a cupcake! This lesson is all about fractions and equal parts. In order to create a fraction, the fraction has to have parts that are all equal. For example, look at how the cupcake will be cut now. This cupcake will be cut into two equal parts. Both parts are the same size:

Whenever you see a fraction, you want to make sure it is split into equal parts. Look at the pizza below.

• How many slices of pizza do you see?

Share your answer with your parent or teacher.

That’s correct! There are eight slices of pizza. This pizza has been cut into eight equal parts. This means all the pieces of the pizza are the same size.

Take a look at another example.

• Would it be fair if you got the small piece of pie on the left and your parent or teacher got the rest of the pie on the right? Why or why not?

Share your answer with your parent or teacher.

It wouldn’t be fair if you split the pie that way! Your parent or teacher would get a piece that was much bigger than the one you got. The pie above is unequal; all the parts are not the same size.

Take a look at the cookie below.

• Is this cookie cut into equal parts? How do you know?

Share your answers with your parent or teacher.

You can tell the cookie is split into equal parts because both pieces are the same size. The pieces of the cookie are equal. If you ate one piece of the cookie, you would be eating half of the cookie.

You saw some examples of foods being divided into equal and unequal parts.

In the Got It? section, you will look at shapes that are divided into equal and unequal parts.