Teaching Fractions in Years 4-5 in Australia: A Term Planner

Fractions in Years 4 and 5 are best taught as a short block of five to eight lessons built around the whole, equal parts and comparison. This guide shows where the topic sits in the Australian Curriculum, how to fit it into a term, and which tasks from a visual-models unit work well in Australian classrooms.

Where fractions sit

Fractions appear in the Number strand, under fractions and decimals, in the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics, Version 9. The unit's content sits closest to that area, in particular to naming, comparing and sharing fractions. That is a general description, and the unit does not claim alignment with any particular descriptor.

Year 4 and Year 5 teachers often find that students can say "one half" but cannot explain what makes it a half. The tasks below target that gap.

A sequence that fits into a term

The Fractions with Visual Models unit has five learning paths: wholes and equal parts, numerator and denominator, comparing fractions, fractions in daily life, and fair sharing. One path per lesson takes five lessons. Add a project lesson and a review lesson and you have seven, which sits easily inside a term alongside your regular maths program.

Running the lessons across two weeks, with a lesson on Monday and Thursday, gives students time to forget a little and recall, which helps with equivalence later.

Plan your assessment moments at the same time. A sensible pattern is a quick ticket after lessons 2 and 4, a project in lesson 6, and the learning check in lesson 7. That gives you four pieces of evidence without adding any extra tests, and you can use them in your reporting to families in a way that describes what students can explain, as well as what they can calculate.

A typical lesson and tasks

For mixed-ability classes, pair students deliberately. A student who is quick with numbers works with one who prefers to draw, and each is asked to explain their reasoning to the other. Because the routine asks for reasons, it suits the way many teachers already build mathematical reasoning into Year 4 and Year 5 lessons.

Keep paper strips, scissors and glue sticks in a tub that can be brought out in seconds. It makes the compare lesson much smoother.

A typical lesson

Each lesson follows the same shape. Open for 5 minutes by showing the illustration with its title hidden. Students record two observations and one question. Spend 20 minutes on the explanation and Task A, working alone and then comparing reasons with a partner. Finish with 10 minutes comparing an example and a counterexample.

Because the routine does not change, students learn it in the first lesson and you spend the later ones on the mathematics.

Tasks that work well

• Equal and unequal circles. Students draw a circle in four equal parts and one in four unequal parts, then explain which shows quarters.
• Strips of the same length. Compare 1/2, 1/4 and 3/4. The same-length strips make the wholes equal.
• Half a litre, half an hour. Students list three situations with a half or a quarter and name the whole in each. The book says liter, so note the spelling difference when you copy it.
• Two loaves, three children. The sample answer is 2/3 of a loaf each. Let groups find their own cuts first.

Language and spelling

The book is written in American English. Students will see liter and math, and you may want to write litre and maths on the board. Everything else in the explanations, such as numerator, denominator and equal parts, is standard in Australian classrooms. The worked examples about pizza and half an hour need no changes.

Assessment and differentiation

The unit includes a project with five criteria: accurate terms, examples explained well, a meaningful question, readable layout and useful image, and feedback applied. It also has a learning check, which students complete as self-assessment, and a teacher note recommending feedback over a grade.

For support, use sentence starters, word cards and a shared image description. For extension, ask students to test a borderline case, develop a counterexample, or compare two solutions to the loaves problem.

If you moderate work with a colleague, the five project criteria give you something concrete to talk about. Look at one project from each level of confidence and ask whether the drawing shows equal parts, whether the terms are accurate and whether the question is open enough to explore. A short conversation like this is more useful than comparing marks.

Extra resources

If you want a lower-cost add-on for upper primary, the fractions teaching resources for Years 6 to 7 give you a way to extend your strongest students.

For several topics across the year, the Explorer bundle puts four units together.

The unit page shows the full contents of the fractions unit.

Related reading from the Teacher Hub

• Fraction Exit Tickets and Differentiation for Grades 4-5
• Unequal Parts and Bigger Denominators: 5 Fraction Errors, Grades 4-5
• How to Teach Area and Perimeter in Grades 3–5 Without Mix-Ups