What fraction is shaded?
Choose the right fraction
| Look at the shape | See how much is shaded. |
| Tap a fraction | Choose the one that matches. |
Fractions shows you a shape with part of it shaded and asks which fraction that represents. It is the visual, concrete version of a topic that trips up an enormous number of children the moment it becomes abstract.
Seeing a fraction as a picture before manipulating it as a symbol matters a great deal. A child who genuinely sees that three quarters is three of four equal parts has something to fall back on when the arithmetic gets harder, whereas one who only learned the notation has nothing underneath it.
Count the total parts first, then the shaded ones. The bottom number of a fraction is how many equal pieces the whole is divided into, and getting that straight before counting the shaded parts avoids most mistakes.
Check whether the parts are equal. A shape divided into unequal pieces does not show a simple fraction at all, and noticing that is a genuinely important idea rather than a technicality.
Look for the simple ones. A half, a quarter and a third have shapes you can recognise instantly, and using them as reference points makes the less familiar fractions easier to estimate.
Say it out loud as a sentence. Three out of four equal parts is far more meaningful to a child than three over four, and the words carry the concept in a way the notation does not.
From about seven, when fractions are typically introduced at school.
Because seeing a fraction makes the idea concrete. Children who only meet the notation often struggle when the arithmetic starts.
How many equal parts the whole has been divided into. The top number is how many of those parts are shaded.
The fractions become less familiar as you go, moving beyond halves and quarters.
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