Most students, but not all, come to fourth grade confident that they can explain what a fraction is. Fractions are equal parts of a whole. They can be more than a whole or less than a whole. The bottom number, or denominator, refers to the number of parts in the whole. The top number, or numerator, refers to the number of parts selected. The first part of our fraction unit, therefore, is to give students time to practice creating and naming both kinds of fractions.
We model fractions in three ways - area models, linear models, and set models.