4th grade · Math · Unit 4 of 15
Fractions
Compare and order fractions
What your child practices
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.
Maine Learning Results learning standard: 4.NF.A.1; 4.NF.A.2 · equivalent fractions and comparing fractions
How we explain it
Children can open this short lesson before they practice.
- 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
Fractions in Maine
In the Maine Learning Results, this is unit 4 of 15 in 4th grade Math, after Multiply & Divide and before Decimals.
Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.
Source: Maine Department of Education
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
What fraction goes where the ? is?
- 1/6
- 1/7
- 5/6
- 2/6
1/6
Hint: The space from 0 to 1 is cut into 6 equal jumps. Count the jumps (not the tick marks) from 0 to the ?.
Question 2
Put the fractions in order from least to greatest.
- 1/10
- 1/7
- 1/11
- 1/12
1/12 → 1/11 → 1/10 → 1/7
Hint: They all have 1 part. The more pieces a whole is cut into, the smaller each piece. So the biggest bottom number is the least.
Question 3
Which fraction is greater than 1/2?
- 2/5
- 3/4
- 1/3
3/4
Hint: Double the top number and compare it with the bottom number. For 3/4: 3 + 3 = 6, which is more than 4, so it's more than half.
Question 4
What fraction is shaded?
answer box
1/4
Hint: Count all the equal parts (4). That's the bottom number. Count the shaded parts (1). That's the top number.
Question 5
Which sign goes in the box?
3/11 3/8
- <
- =
- >
<
Hint: Both have 3 parts. A whole cut into fewer parts has bigger parts: one 8-part piece is bigger than one 11-part piece. So 3/8 is bigger than 3/11.
Question 6
Amir ran 3/8 of a trail. Noah ran 3/5 of the same trail. Who ran farther?
🏃- Noah
- Amir
- They are the same
Noah
Hint: Both ran 3 parts. A trail cut into fewer parts has longer parts, so the smaller bottom number is farther.