Fractions+&+Decimals+Yr+4

Fractions and Decimals Sub Strand of Number and Algebra Year 4 Analysis In Year 4 students are taught to recognise common equivalent fractions in contexts that are considered familiar and the relationship between families of fractions. Students are required to make explicit connections between fractions and decimals as well as count by quarters, thirds and halves with the inclusion of mixed numbers. Booker et al (2004) outlines the critical need for common fractions and decimal fractions to be explicitly over taught in schools so that crucial mathematical foundations are laid in developing important higher level cognitive processes to further mathematics. Educators need to ensure they provide students with the proper language development necessary through the partitioning process and include that a fraction is ‘part of something’ more precise by building on the concept of part/whole to help consolidate new understandings (Booker et al, 2004). Siemon et al (2011, p. 407) acknowledge that whilst students experience of fractions are derived from fair sharing; it is only when an awareness of the relationship between the individual shares and the original quantity is understood that a sense of fractions becomes evident.
 * Background **

Outlined below are the content description and elaborations for fractions and decimals at a year four level. **Content description ** //Elaborations // investigating the use of fractions and sharing as a way of managing Country: for example taking no more than half the eggs from a nest to protect future bird populations.  3. using division by 10 to extend the place-value system, using knowledge of fractions to establish equivalences between fractions and decimal notation.
 * ‍ ****The Australian Curriculum **
 * 1) Investigate equivalent fractions used in contexts [|(ACMNA077)]
 * 2) Count by quarters halves and thirds, including with mixed numerals. Locate and represent these fractions on a number line [|(ACMNA078)]
 * 3) Recognise that the place value system can be extended to tenths and hundredths. Make connections between fractions and decimal notation [|(ACMNA079)]
 * 1) exploring the relationship between families of fractions (halves, quarters and eighths or thirds and sixths) by folding a series of paper strips to construct a fraction wall.
 * 2) converting mixed numbers to improper fractions and vice versa ,

__ **Activity ** __ <span style="font-family: 'Euphemia','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">By the end of Year 4 students are required to have an understanding of equivalent fractions used in context. in this activity students are exploring the relationship between the fraction families to identify.

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<span style="font-family: 'Arial Narrow','sans-serif'; font-size: 21px;">Students worked in pairs and were able to understand the relationship after realising that each of the families were factors of each other and could equally be divided and multiplied into each other within their own family grouping but were unsuccessful at maintaining the same size square when integrating the families.
 * Brooke :) **

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Booker, G., Bond, D., Sparrow, L., & Swan, P. (2004). //Teaching primary mathematics.// Frenchs Forest: Pearson education Australia. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Siemon, D., Beswick, K., Brady, K., Clark, J., Faragher, R., & Warren, E. (2011). //Teaching mathematics: Foundations to middle years//. Sydney: Oxford University Press <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> The Australain Curriculum (ACARA) (2012). Retrieved from: [| http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Mathematics/Curriculum/F-10?y=4&y=5&s=NA&layout=2]