Grade 4 · Math · Unit 5 of 12
Fractions
Compare and order fractions
What your child practises
Naming fractions from pictures and number lines, comparing fractions with the same top or bottom number, using 1/2 as a benchmark, and finding equal fractions.
Newfoundland and Labrador Curriculum curriculum outcome: Number sense and number theory (by Grade 6) · fractions less than or equal to 1
How we explain it
Children can open this short lesson before they practise.
- The bottom number is how many equal parts. The top is how many we have.
- Equal fractions name the same amount: 1/2 = 2/4.
- Same bottom: compare tops. Same top: more parts means smaller pieces.
Example: Which is bigger: 1/6 or 1/9? Same top number, 1. 9 parts are smaller pieces, so 1/6 is bigger. Answer: 1/6
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
Which fraction is greater than 1/2?
- 1/4
- 5/12
- 5/8
5/8
Hint: Double the top number and compare it with the bottom number. For 5/8: 5 + 5 = 10, which is more than 8, so it's more than half.
Question 2
What fraction goes where the ? is?
- 1/4
- 3/4
- 3/5
- 2/4
3/4
Hint: The space from 0 to 1 is cut into 4 equal jumps. Count the jumps (not the tick marks) from 0 to the ?.
Question 3
Priya ran 1/2 of a trail. Kenji ran 1/3 of the same trail. Who ran farther?
🏃- Priya
- They are the same
- Kenji
Priya
Hint: Both ran 1 part. A trail cut into fewer parts has longer parts, so the smaller bottom number is farther.
Question 4
Which fraction is equal to 2/5?
- 6/15
- 7/15
- 6/16
6/15
Hint: Multiply the top and the bottom by the same number: 2 × 3 = 6 and 5 × 3 = 15. Same amount, just more pieces.
Question 5
What fraction is shaded?
answer box
1/3
Hint: Count all the equal parts (3). That's the bottom number. Count the shaded parts (1). That's the top number.
Question 6
Which sign goes in the box?
3/7 3/10
- <
- =
- >
>
Hint: Both have 3 parts. A whole cut into fewer parts has bigger parts: one 7-part piece is bigger than one 10-part piece. So 3/7 is bigger than 3/10.