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Last time the flatbread was cut again so four friends each got a fair piece. Today the fair cut goes onto the ground. Leo and Mia mark out the square herb bed at the allotment.
Mia wants half the bed for mint. How should she cut it?
Halves & Quarters of Shapes
Partition circles and rectangles into two and four equal shares and describe them using the words halves, fourths, and quarters
What a learner can do afterwards
- Divide a circle into two equal halves
- Divide a rectangle into four equal quarters
- Describe the whole as 'two halves' or 'four quarters'
1 · Read
Leo and Mia mark out the square herb bed at the allotment. It is one whole bed. Cut it into two parts that match, and each part is a half. The two halves together make the whole bed again.
Tap to shade 1 of the 2 parts.
The two parts have to match. Hold one part against the other and look. If one part is bigger, they are not halves. A half can also look different: down the middle, across the bed, or corner to corner. What counts is that the two parts are the same size.
Try it together
Then they cut each half again. Now the bed is four matching strips: mint, parsley, chives and thyme. One strip is called a quarter, or a fourth. Four quarters make the whole bed.
Tap to shade 1 of the 4 parts.
Four friends each take one strip when all four strips match. If two parts are long and two are tiny, there are still four parts, but they are not quarters.
Two matching parts are halves, four matching parts are quarters or fourths, and the parts always have to be the same size.
Practice items adapted from Open Middle problems (Shape Partitions); license not recorded.
2 · Watch
3 · Play
Take it off screen
Print a worksheetA4 with an answer key page for grown-ups. No screen, no internet.
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
Then practise
12 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.