Fractions
In Year 5, fractions stop being about single shapes and start being about how fractions relate to one another. Children compare and order fractions whose denominators are multiples of the same number, work confidently with fractions greater than one, and find equivalents, including tenths and hundredths. Once they can rename a fraction without changing its value, comparing, ordering and combining fractions all rest on the same idea.
Practise Fractions
Have a guess, even if you're not sure. Get one wrong and we'll show you why, so every miss is a chance to learn.
Timed practice
The same practice, just with a gentle clock. Pick a length and see how many you can answer.
Good to know
The fraction wall
Every bar is the same whole, split into more and more equal pieces, so equal fractions line up one above another.
For grown-ups
Two big ideas anchor the year. The first is that a fraction is also a division, so 3/4 is simply three shared between four, which quietly links fractions to everything children already know about dividing. The second is that adding, subtracting and multiplying fractions only works once you control the denominator: children add and subtract with related denominators and multiply proper fractions and mixed numbers by whole numbers. This fluent renaming, and the understanding that a fraction is a number you can compare, combine and divide with, is the groundwork for the decimals, percentages and proportional reasoning that follow in Year 6 and on into secondary maths.
What is in this topic
- Comparing and ordering fractions, including over one whole
- Equivalent fractions, mixed numbers and improper fractions
- Adding and subtracting fractions with related denominators
- Multiplying fractions by whole numbers
- Fractions as division, and fractions of an amount
- Find the whole when you know a fraction of it
How to help at home
Fractions click when a child can see them, so keep the fraction wall in view and tie every question back to it. Short, frequent sessions where they point at the bars beat one long sit-down, because the wall does the explaining and your job is just to keep them talking through it.
- Read equal fractions straight off the wall. Show that a half lines up exactly with 2/4, 3/6, 4/8 and 5/10, then ask 'what else equals a half?' so they spot that the bottom number is always double the top.
- To compare two fractions, rename one so the bottom numbers match. For 3/4 and 7/8, point out 3/4 is the same as 6/8 (times top and bottom by 2), and now 6/8 against 7/8 is easy, so 7/8 is bigger.
- Find a fraction of an amount in two steps: divide, then times. For 3/4 of 20, divide by the bottom (20 / 4 = 5), then times by the top (5 x 3 = 15).
- Treat a fraction as a sharing sum. Ask 'what is 3 shared between 4?' and let them see the answer is just 3/4, which is why one pizza shared between four people gives each person a quarter.
Where children get stuck
The most common slip is comparing fractions by their top numbers alone, so a child sees 3/4 and 5/8 and decides 3/4 is smaller just because 3 is less than 5, with no thought for the different bottoms. The fix is to make the bottoms match first: rewrite 3/4 as 6/8 using the wall, and now 6/8 against 5/8 shows 3/4 is actually the bigger one.
The other wobble is adding fractions by adding both the tops and the bottoms, turning 1/2 + 1/8 into 2/10. Remind them only the tops are added once the bottoms agree: rename 1/2 as 4/8, then 4/8 + 1/8 = 5/8, and the bottom number stays put.