As usual the Little Fung and Little Ming are arguing - but unusually for them it is about schoolwork. yes schoolwork! Very strange..

LF: I tell you it is about numbers!

LM: No, it is about sharing things OUT!

LF: Numbers!

LM: Sharing!

LF: NUMBERS!

LM: It is about having equal amounts.

LF: My teacher showed us it was all about numbers. On what she calls a number line.

LM: But we have been shown that it is about sharing things out fairly.

LF: NUMBERS, NUMBERS dear brother

LM: Oh this is hopeless .I am going into the yard and find someone sensible to talk to.

LF: That is if you can find them ..they are ALL in a meeting to talk about getting a bigger van and the alterations needed in the yard to allow the van in.

LM: Oh yes but they will know all about fractions. Didn't they help us once before?

LF: Yes, we could settle this nonsense once and for all. Where you get your ideas from is a mystery to me.

LM: I am not as bad as you..anyway they could confuse us further.

The children enter the office and find everyone - GranmaT, Mai Ling, Chi Wing, Wai Ping and Wah Mung sitting round the table enjoying cups of tea. The business appears to have finished and what better time to interrupt!

LF: Can you settle an argument?

CW: Umm, that will make a change

LM: No we can't agree about fractions.

WM: Fractions! - but don't you do those at school?

LF: Yes. So what do you remember from school?

GT: That might not be so easy for us older ones - Little Fung

LM: Oh stop teasing. you must remember what you learnt at school!

LF: And anyway you all must use them here when working.. so what are fractions?

WP: Never use them! Never needed to. Cannot help you.

CW: Let me ask both of you a question. What do you multiply 6 by to get 2?

A short pause and everyone looking blank except one

LF: A third - one over three.

CW: Now that is a fraction!

LM: But surely that is like sharing six crackers out between 3 people and everybody getting two apiece!

WM: To take a third of something is the same as dividing by 3!

GT: But a fraction is also a ratio! What is the ratio of males to females here in this room?

LM(counting): 3 females; 4 men.

GT: The fraction ¾ expresses a relationship between those two quantities

LF: NOOOOOOO

LF: Three sevenths of us are female and four sevenths are male..

WM: I do remember at school having to turn things upside down to multiply - now what is all that to do with fractions?

WP: Eh.remember that riddle? Half of a half of a half of a half of a half is what?

ML: Almost nothing. Now let us get back to the business in hand - out you children go ....

GT: Yes out you go we have to decide what are the implications of having a van that is half as big again....

In the meantime..

Children you might like to:

• Complete the silhouette of Little Fung at the table asking about fractions.
• List all the different instances when YOU USE fractions.
• Think about how you met fractions in school and what you have been taught. What can you remember?
• Convince someone that a quarter is bigger than a fifth. (hint: think of sweets)
• Take a line make it half as big again; draw a shape on dotty paper - now make that half as big again!

Parents you might like to:

• Explain in what contexts you use fractions at work and in the home.
• Investigate the fractional parts of a pound i.e. BEFORE the decimalisation of our currency in 1972.
• Convince someone a quarter is bigger than a fifth?
• Investigate the idea of ratio when mixing water and squash or when sharing out meals/ sweets etc.
• Explore the use of fractions within the context of time.

Teachers you might like to:

• Explore the Tangram to explain and illustrate the 'sixteenths' family of fractions.
• Consider the differing ways of re' presenting fractional quantities.
• Explain why "we turn one fraction upside down and multiply out"
• Investigate mixing liquids/ sharing sweets in differing ratios.
• Develop the vocabulary of fractions and illustrate the different members of the fraction family - vulgar fractions, improper fractions, decimal fractions, etc.
• Halve a square in as many different ways as possible.