Dividing sweets to learn about fractions (Borgue Primary School P4-P7)
An investigative approach: lesson
Barry Litherland studied at Exeter and Lancaster and has been teaching for 25 years. He has taught at five schools and for seven years has been at Borgue Primary School, where he is the teaching head. At the end of 2004 he began a two year secondment working on the Dumfries and Galloway numeracy strategy.
P4/P5/P6/P7 lesson
At the beginning of the lesson, Barry and the pupils talk about what fractions mean to them in real life. Pupils mention how chocolates or sausages have been shared unfairly at home!
Barry puts out five chewy fruit bars and asks how they could be divided between three pupils. Then, in small groups, the pupils work out how to divide the five bars between six pupils. Someone from each group shows on the board how they achieved this and the pupils note that even though the fractions are written differently, they are actually the same. The final task is to draw a diagram showing how the bars could be shared out.
Barry is hoping that during the lesson an agenda will become clear of how to develop the study of fractions over the next few weeks.
| A P4/P7 class at Borgue in problem solving | |
|---|---|
| Description | Barry Litherland begins an investigation based on fractions in which pupils divide up chewy fruit bars |
| Duration | 2 minutes 35 seconds |
| Windows version |  Windows Media video: A P4/P7 class at Borgue in problem solving |
| Mac version |  QuickTime movie: A P4/P7 class at Borgue in problem solving |
| Transcript | A P4/P7 class at Borgue in problem solving |
Related school story
- Borgue Primary School
Barry Litherland, headteacher, discusses the whole-school programme.