Proportion Problems

#TheCompleteSeries5lessons

Give your Year 4 class the tools they need to solve a variety of proportion questions. In this five-lesson scheme of work, children will become more familiar with working with fractions and decimals and practise the skills they learn while playing games, completing puzzles and solving a variety of problems. With each lesson's included slides and differentiated activities, they'll learn to identify equivalent fractions, find fractions of amounts, add and subtract fractions with the same denominator, compare fractions and decimals and round decimal numbers.

Proportion Problems' comes with detailed lesson plans which include teaching inputs to accompany the slideshow presentations, and enable you to explain mathematical concepts clearly. Each of the five lessons also comes with a variety of printable resources such as fractions worksheets, activity cards, puzzles and games.

If you need to brush op on your ratio and proportion knowledge check out our ratio and proportion explainer wiki.

#Lesson1Findingequivalentfractions

Teach children methods for finding equivalent fractions, and identify match families of common equivalent fractions, using diagrams, games, puzzles and problems.

In this, the first of five lessons in 'Proportion Problems' for Year 4, children will recap their prior knowledge of fractions and decimals, and how they can be compared. After that, they'll learn how to find equivalent fractions using diagrams. For example, in several diagrams with arrays of 16 circles, each shaded in different patterns, children will work out which have been shaded to represent one quarter and which have not.

During their independent learning, pupils may either play equivalent fractions games (using the provided, printable resources) or complete a 'Colour by Fraction' activity to reveal a picture.

#Lesson2Addandsubtractfractions

Teach children to add and subtract fractions with the same denominator, including if the answer is larger than one.

In this, the second of five lessons in 'Proportion Problems' for Year 4, children will look at some real-life problems where they must add and subtract fractions with a common denominator. The included slides guide children through the problems shown and explain methods for adding and subtracting fractions, including those where the answer is greater than one.

After the teaching input, there's a choice of differentiated learning activities (with a range of printable resources) where children may practise what they've learnt by solving addition and subtraction problems—including missing number problems—independently, in pairs or in small groups.

#Lesson3Findingfractionsofamounts

Teach children all about finding fractions of amounts and solving problems involving finding unit fractions of quantities.

In this lesson (the third of five complete lessons and resources included in 'Proportion Problems' for Year 4), children will first be asked to recall their prior knowledge about how to find fractions of quantities. Starting with sets of objects, they will be challenged to find, for example, one quarter of 24. Moving on, the included slides show how finding fractions of quantities relates to division. Pupils will then go on to learn to find unit fractions of increasingly challenging numbers.

After the teaching input, there's a choice of differentiated learning activities (with a range of printable resources) where children may either work independently to solve missing number problems, or take part in a class fractions game of 'Pointless'.

#Lesson4Findingnonunitfractionsofamounts

Teach children how to find fractions of amounts using non-unit fractions, such as finding three-fifths of 35.

Building on children's prior knowledge (including what they may have learnt in the previous three 'Proportion Problems' lessons), this lesson challenges children to find fractions of amounts using a variety of non-unit fractions. The included slides clearly explain what non-unit fractions are, and how to calculate non-unit fractions of amounts. They show several questions for children to consider as they begin to apply their newly learnt skills.

After the main teaching input, there's a choice of differentiated learning activities where children may either practice solving some real-life problems shown on the non-unit fractions worksheets or tackle some challenging fractions tarsia puzzles.

#Lesson5RoundingDecimals

Teach children all about rounding decimals to the nearest whole number, and how to round to 2 decimal places.

In this, the last of five lessons included with 'Proportion Problems' for Year 4, children will look again at the relationship between fractions and decimals, focusing on the place value of decimal numbers up to 2 decimal places. They'll go on to learn how to round numbers with one decimal place to the nearest whole number.

After the main teaching input, pupils may either work independently to complete some crossword puzzles involving rounding decimals, or play a game of decimal bingo.

Free Overview (Medium-Term Plan)

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Curriculum Objectives covered

• Year 4 - recognise and show, using diagrams, families of common equivalent fractions
• Year 4 - solve problems involving increasingly harder fractions to calculate quantities, and fractions to divide quantities, including non-unit fractions where the answer is a whole number
• Year 4 - add and subtract fractions with the same denominator
• Year 4 - round decimals with one decimal place to the nearest whole number
• Year 4 - solve simple measure and money problems involving fractions and decimals to two decimal places