Introduction to Fractions

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

That’s right — you are going to learn about fractions!

A fraction is a part of a whole. For example, if I had a chocolate pie and I cut it into 8 slices, and I ate 1 piece of the pie, I could say that I ate ¹⁄₈ of the chocolate pie.

Watch Introduction to Fraction for Kids, from Smart Learning for All, so you can learn more about the parts of a fraction:

Use what you learned from the video and take a few seconds to study the circle below:

• First, how many parts are in the whole circle?

That’s right! There are 3 equal parts in the circle.

• Is this number the numerator or the denominator?

Yes, it is the denominator, because the denominator tells us how many parts are in the whole thing. So we write it under the fraction bar:

• How many of the parts are red?

If you said, "1," you are correct. There is only 1 red part. So 1 is the numerator because it tells us how many parts of the whole we are talking about.

Let’s try another one.

• How many parts are in this circle?

There are 6 parts in the circle.

• How many are red?

The correct answer is 4.

• Which number, the 6 or the 4, is the numerator?

The numerator tells us how many parts we are talking about, so those are the parts that are colored red. In this case, there are 4 parts out of the 6 that are red.

Our fraction looks like this:

Fractions are very useful in our everyday lives.

• Can you think of some ways fractions might be useful to you?

Share your ideas with you parent or teacher, then move on to the Got It? section to have some fun with worksheets!