COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS IN FRACTIONS – KS1 Useful to adapt and use as discussion points with the children…. Heather Ross University of Greenwich September 2013

Not dividing a shape into equal segments I have split my shape into 4. They are quarters

Not using the complete set of objects ¼ of the balls are blue.. That means 1 ball is blue and 4 are not.

Not appreciating the denominator I think ¼ is bigger than ½ as 4 is bigger than 2. I can put these fractions on a numberline 0 ½ ¼ 1

Not appreciating the numerator I know that a quarter is smaller than a half. So ¾ must be smaller than ½ as we have shared into 4 pieces of pizza

Confusing halving and doubling Halving is something to do with the number 2. Half of my sweets must be 12

The names of the fractions A half is 1 shared by 2 so it must be called one-twoth ½

Not appreciating that halves can have different values Pocket money 20p Pocket money 40p Joe Emma Halve of Joe’s pocket money is 10p. Halve of Emma’s pocket money can not be 20p as halves have to be equal