Fractions of quantities: L1: unexpected guests
The Lesson
In this exciting lesson, you will have an opportunity to show your understanding of halves, thirds and quarters, whilst solving a variety of fraction problems that relate to the fascinating clip that you watched at the start of the lesson and the animals that it featured.
Useful prior knowledge:
- To know what is meant by the numerator and the denominator in a unit fraction.
- To be able to recognise a half (1/2), a third (1/3) and a quarter 1/4).
- To be able to calculate unit fractions of small quantities (e.g. 1/2 of 8, 1/4 of 12 etc.).
Did you know?
An elephant’s trunk has more than 40 thousand muscles. The trunks are used for sucking up water, picking up or or touching objects, trumpeting warnings, and for greeting one another. An elephant can also use its trunk as a snorkel when swimming!
Whiteboard Challenges
Divide the bars and draw counters to solve the problems below.
A herd of 12 elephants stopped at the Zambezi River before walking through the safari lodge to get to the mango tree.
1) At the river, 1/2 of the herd squirted water over their backs to keep themselves cool.
How many elephants squirted water over their backs?
2) At the river, 1/3 of the herd used their trunk like a snorkel.
How many elephants used their trunk like a snorkel?
3) At the river, 1/4 of the elephants in the herd were more than 40 years old.
How many elephants were more than 40 years old?