Year 4 Compare and order mixed numbers and position on a number line worksheet

“Reading numbers on lines” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 4 maths unit “Compare and order mixed numbers and position on a number line”, for children aged 8 to 9, and takes about 20 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Week 25 of the year, 5 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Reading numbers on lines

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 4 · Maths · about 20 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can read where a mixed number sits by counting the equal parts first.

A Look back3 min

1.
A bar has 4 equal parts and 3 are shaded. How many parts are not shaded?
2.
2 quarters are the same as half.
3.
Circle the bigger fraction.
1/32/3

B Watch me, then you4 min

A number line from 2 to 3 has 4 equal parts. A number sits 3 steps past 2. What is the number?

Watch me

2 is the whole number, so the number sits between 2 and 3.

Count the equal parts between 2 and 3: there are 4, so each step is a quarter.

3 steps from 2 gives 2 and three-quarters.

Now you

1.
A bar goes from 5 to 6 in 6 equal parts. The number sits where the shading stops. What number is it? 5 and /6

C Your turn6 min

Each row changes one thing. Look at the whole number first, then count the equal parts.

1.
Look at the bar from 1 to 2. Count the equal parts. Circle the size of one step.
quarterhalfthirdfifth
2.
Look at the bar from 1 to 2. Count the equal parts. Circle the size of one step.
quartereighthsixthfifth
3.
A bar goes from 6 to 7 in 8 equal parts. The number sits where the shading stops. What number is it? 6 and /8
4.
Between 3 and 4 there are 3 equal parts. How many steps back from 4 is 3 and 2/3?

Say it out loud: What stayed the same in every row, and what changed?

D Spot the mistake3 min

Ash says: “Between 2 and 3 there are 3 marks, so each step is a third.”

1.
How many equal parts are really between 2 and 3?

E Think deeper4 min

A number line goes from 0 to 3. Each gap between whole numbers has 4 equal parts. Start at 0 and jump one quarter at a time.

1.
After which jumps, from jump 1 to jump 12, do you land exactly on a whole number? Write the jump numbers.

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Reading numbers on lines · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. 1

2. 1

3. 2/3

B

1. 4 If your child writes 6, they have counted every part of the bar. Count only the shaded steps from 5.

C

1. quarter If your child circles third, they have counted the tick marks inside the gap, not the spaces between them. Count the spaces.

2. eighth

3. 5 If your child writes 3, they have counted the unshaded steps left to 7. Count the shaded steps from 6.

4. 1 If your child writes 2, they have counted two steps forward from 3 instead of one step back from 4. Start at 4 and count back.

D

1. 4 If your child writes 3, they have counted the marks, not the spaces. There are 3 marks inside but 4 spaces. Count the spaces.

E

1. 4, 8, 12

Words to use

Say“How many equal spaces are between the two whole numbers? Count the spaces, not the marks.”

Instead of“Count the tick marks and call that the fraction.”

After the sheet

Fold a strip of paper into four equal parts, then lay it between two pencil marks on a line and count the spaces.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

4 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Where does it sit?(with a plan)
Which mixed number is greater?(with a plan)
Comparing the fraction parts(with a plan)
Which Mixed Number Is Bigger?(with a plan)

Every Year 4 maths worksheet

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