Lesson 5 — Activity 1: What Is a Fraction?

How well do you think these two understood the basic concept underlying fractions — equal portions?

Sometimes fractions scare students, yet we use fractions almost every day without even thinking about them.

Consider the following examples:

	I'll be there in half an hour.	30 minutes is half of 60 minutes in an hour.
Image Source: Pixabay	Would you like to share my candies?	Divide the bag into groups of equal pieces for each of your friends.
Image Source: Pixabay	I need to change this $100 bill into five $20 bills.	Split the $100 into five equal parts.

All these actions require the use of fractions.

Fractions are used as part of our daily language, and we understand this concept at a very early age. A young child knows that if he has 3 candies and wants to share with 2 friends, he will divide the total into 3 portions so that each receives 1 candy.

When you halve one apple or halve the number of candies in a box, the result can be expressed as a fraction.

     

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A fraction is a way to express part of a whole or part of a group. To make a fraction means to divide into equal parts. If one thing is being divided, then the parts will be exactly the same size. If a group is being divided, then each part will have exactly the same number of pieces.

When a whole or group is divided into 2 groups, the fraction is written as ½. Look carefully at ½. The number under the line (2) is the number of equal parts into which the whole was divided.

The parts of a fraction are the numerator (top number), the denominator (bottom number), and the line between the two. Together they are written like this:

  numerator     
denominator

OR

numerator/denominator

The line tells us to divide the numerator by the denominator. 

Look at the example below:

You will learn more about proper fractions, improper fractions, and mixed numbers in the lessons that follow.

  Self-check!

Digging Deeper!