As a special treat for VE Day, we had to have scones. We decided to use a dice game to test the understanding of our learning on fractions.

Resources

  • Whiteboard
  • Black and red whiteboard pen
  • Fraction die

Method

First, they drew two scones on their whiteboards.

Then they had to roll the die to work out what fraction of their scones they could cover in jam. Ioan rolled a whole one and Finn got one quarter, but needed help from Ioan to read it.

Next, Ioan got a half. Finn got one and a quarter and this time he was able to read the quarter as 1/4 straight away. As he coloured in his second quarter, he knew that he now had one half. Ioan worked out that would mean they both had one and a half scones coloured in.

1/4 + 1 1/4 = 1 2/4 = 1 1/2

1 + 1/2 = 1 1/2

On his next roll, Finn got one half. 1 1/2 + 1/2 = 2, so Finn now had 2 wholes. Ioan got one quarter. 1 1/2 + 1/4 = 1 3/4.

1 3/4 + 1/4 = 2, so all Ioan needed to roll to finish was a quarter.

Now that they had worked out how to fill their scones with jam, they were ready to try one for real. There was no way that Cian was going to miss out on this part!

Thumbs up.

Three happy boys.

DfES Outcomes for EYFS and National Curriculum (2013)

Mathematics Year 1 programme of study

Number – fractions

  • recognise, find and name a half as one of two equal parts of an object, shape or quantity
  • recognise, find and name a quarter as one of four equal parts of an object, shape or quantity.