1 part of a whole is called a unit fraction. A unit is one piece.
Each piece is one half of the whole circle.
1 is the numerator. It means 1 piece of the circle is green.
2 is the denominator. It means there are 2 pieces in the whole.
It is important to understand that fractions only work when they are talking about the same whole.
1/2 of each shape is colored.
Each whole is unique because it is it’s own shape and size.
Each half is not equal to the others.
In order to be a fraction, shapes need to be divided into pieces that are equal in size.
What fraction of the area of each shape is colored?
The unit fraction for each shape is colored.
Equal Sharing
When people share one whole item, each portion will be a fraction of the whole.
There are 4 friends and just 1 donut.
If they share the donut equally, how much of the donut will they each get?
They will each get 1/4 of the donut.
If the donut is cut into quarters, there will be 4 pieces of donut.
Each friend will get 1 out of the 4 pieces, or 1/4 of the whole donut!
One pie is shared equally among six friends, what fraction of the pie will they each get?
Each friend will get 1 out of 6 pieces, or 1/6 of the pie.
The whole pie needs to be cut into 6 sixths or 6/6.
Each slice represents 1/6 of the whole pie.
Practice Problems
If four friends equally share one pizza. What faction of the pizza will each friend get?
What would the unit fraction for the whole be if you divide the square into 12 equal pieces?
What fraction of the shape is shaded?
