Fraction Wall

Students read equivalence straight off the wall — that two quarters line up with one half — instead of being told it, and use the wall to compare fractions when they cannot yet do it numerically.

Students will be able to:

• Recognise equivalent fractions by comparing rows of the wall
• Compare and order fractions with different denominators
• Explain why one eighth is smaller than one sixth even though eight is larger than six

Black and white prints as clean line art rather than a greyed-out copy of the colour version, so the class can colour it in. The preview above changes with this setting.

Pages

21

Colour pages

11

Black & white

10

Paper

• White: 21 sheets — Everything in the print pack
• White: 2 sheets — Mounting the comparison strip
• Blue: 3 sheets — Title letters

What is in the pack

• Title letters — FRACTION WALL — 3 sheets, black and white

  F · R · A · C · T · I · and 6 more

• The seven bars — 7 sheets, colour

  1 whole · Halves · Thirds · Quarters · Sixths · Eighths · and 1 more

  One row per sheet, each printed at full page width so every bar is genuinely the same length.

• Row labels — 1 sheet, black and white

  1 · 1/2 · 1/3 · 1/4 · 1/6 · 1/8 · and 1 more

• Vocabulary cards — 2 sheets, black and white

  numerator — the number on top, how many parts you have · denominator — the number underneath, how many equal parts the whole was cut into · equivalent — different numbers, same amount · simplify — write the same fraction with smaller numbers · unit fraction — a fraction with 1 on top · improper fraction — the top number is bigger than the bottom

• Equivalence cards — 2 sheets, colour

  1/2 = 2/4 = 3/6 = 4/8 = 6/12 · 1/3 = 2/6 = 4/12 · 1/4 = 2/8 = 3/12 · 2/3 = 4/6 = 8/12 · 3/4 = 6/8 = 9/12 · The bigger the denominator, the smaller each piece.

• Number border strip — 1 sheet, colour

  Repeating fraction strip

• Moveable comparison strip — 2 sheets, black and white

  A loose strip students slide down the wall to compare any two fractions · Pocket template to hold it · Six challenge cards: which is bigger, 2/3 or 5/8?

Change the title and the printable letters regenerate to match it.

1. 1

   Step 1 — Prepare the background

   Cover the board in plain white or cream. The bars carry all the colour on this board, so anything busy behind them ruins the comparison.

2. 2

   Step 2 — Draw a baseline first

   Pencil a vertical line down the left and right where every bar will start and end. Every bar must be exactly the same length or the whole board teaches the wrong thing.

3. 3

   Step 3 — Add the title

   Run FRACTION WALL across the top.

4. 4

   Step 4 — Fix the 1 whole bar

   Put the whole bar at the top, flush to both pencil lines. Everything below gets aligned to this one.

5. 5

   Step 5 — Work down the rows

   Halves, thirds, quarters, sixths, eighths, twelfths, each directly beneath the one above with a finger's gap. Check the left edges line up after every row.

6. 6

   Step 6 — Label the rows

   Put the row label at the left of each bar, outside the pencil line, so the bars themselves stay a clean rectangle.

7. 7

   Step 7 — Add the equivalence cards and strip

   Pin the equivalence cards along the bottom and staple the comparison strip pocket at the bottom right, within a student's reach.

What students do

1. Take a challenge card and the comparison strip from the pocket.
2. Line the strip up under the first fraction on the card.
3. Slide it down to the second fraction and read which reaches further.
4. Write your answer on the class sheet and put the strip back.

For the teacher: Change the six challenge cards weekly. Pairs with different denominators and close values — 2/3 against 5/8 — are the ones worth arguing about.