This article describes the progression from halves, to thirds and fourths, as well as fair sharing as a means of teaching more abstract fractions to young students. Throughout the article activities are suggested to support the learning, as well as a link to a six-minute video which shows two children working on a difficult sharing situation practically with a teacher who questions appropriately to get the thinking going. Two of the activities mentioned in the article, "Happy Halving" and "Bowl of Fruit" are cataloged separately.

This problem with multiple solutions is an opportunity for students to practice finding equivalent fractions using a visual fraction bar model. The goal is for the student to develop a deep understanding of equivalent fractions using the model in order to determine a rule for finding equivalent fractions without a model. A Teacher's Note page, hints, possible solutions, and a printable page are provided.

This lesson/unit is all about Fractions!  Students will access a digital learning site to explore fractions through multiple media sources.  They will watch videos, read books, play games, and visit websites all designed to help them develop a deeper understanding of fractions.  To demonstrate their knowledge, students will then work with their peers to complete a digital notebook, a hyperdoc, a jamboard, and a google form.  Students will be empowered to learn because this lesson/unit gives them choice!

This exploratory problem provides students a way to consolidate their understanding of halving and halves and gives students experience of mathematical proof. The students are given multiple images of squares split in half. The goal is to prove how they are correctly halved and to think of other ways to split a square into two halves. The Teachers' Notes page offers rationale, suggestions for implementation along with a PowerPoint presentation, discussion questions, ideas for extension and support, and printable (pdf) worksheets of the problem.

This problem consolidates children's understanding of halving in a spatial context and will help them to develop their powers of visualization. The students are given four different shapes and the goal is to divide them each into two parts that are exactly the same. The Teachers' Notes page offers rationale, suggestions for implementation, discussion questions, a link to an extension activity, Same Shapes (cataloged separately), and a link to a simpler activity, Halving (cataloged separately).

In this article Pennant and Woodham discuss the importance of rich tasks in the teaching of fractions. In order to prepare for new more rigorous standards, the authors have compiled a list of rich tasks and a description of others that aim to improve how children think about fractions.