A New Topic - Fractions

Had the Pri 2 Maths class today, where the topic was on Fractions, one which the pupils had not come across previously. So the teacher started off the lesson by emphasizing on this, that the pupils need to focus on the lesson today, as the topic would be completely new to them.

So she took more a few shapes (circle, square, rectangle), and asked for volunteers to fold the shapes into equal parts, having two pupils fold the same shapes for comparison. To help the rest of the pupils 'see' the equal parts better, she drew the outline on the shapes when showing them on the visualizer.

She also took care to provide non-examples, by drawing and splitting the shapes unequally and asking pupils whether the parts are equal. When she was sure that they had fully understood the concept of equal parts, she introduced the term 'fraction', stating clearly how it is connected to the concept of 'equal parts'. She also brought up the terms 'numerator' and 'denominator', explaining what they are. taking care to emphasize that X/Y is read as X out of Y parts, and not X over Y, with X referring to what the question is asking for, and Y referring to the total number of equal parts (altogether).

She also used examples that the pupils are familiar with, such as asking "Which part / object in the classroom can be divided into equal parts?" and "If one panel of the window is broken, what 'fraction' is missing?" "What 'fraction' is left?", emphasizing that the proper term to use is 'fraction' and not 'number'.

I think that it's very important to do this, especially since it's the first time the pupils are exposed to the topic, so as to provide them with a good foundation of the topic.