Week 3: Parts of the whole

Introduction

You encountered fractions briefly in Week 2, when you looked at how to show them on a number line and related them to decimal numbers. This week you will continue your exploration of fractions and look at them in more detail.

First, you’ll look at what a fraction is and then look at different types of fraction. Some of this may seem a little like maths for the sake of maths but much of this week’s study is to provide a solid foundation for carrying out calculations using fractions. So stick with it and their importance will become clear!

By the end of the week, and after you have completed all the activities, you should feel more confident in dealing with different types of fraction as well as the language to use when describing them.

Doing the activities as you come across them is a very important part of cementing your understanding of the maths that you will be studying. Just as someone learning a sport needs to practise their skills to get better at it, so doing the activities helps develop your mathematical skills.

Now watch Maria introduce Week 3.

Download this video clip.Video player: swim1_week_3_demo1.mp4

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Transcript

Maria Townsend

This week is all about fractions; a way of showing equal parts of something. I’ve cut this cake into quarters. If I was feeling generous and wanted to share a slice I could cut this into quarters as well. Both the cake and the slice are now cut into quarters but are very different sizes. So for fractions to mean anything you need to know what they’re fractions of.

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After this study week, you should be able to:

• understand the language of fractions
• write and understand fractions
• find the simplest form of a fraction
• convert between improper fractions and mixed numbers, and vice versa.