Year 6 Comparing fractions worksheet

“Fractions with a common bottom” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 6 maths unit “Comparing fractions”, for children aged 10 to 11, 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 23 of the year, 5 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Fractions with a common bottom

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 6 · Maths · about 20 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can compare fractions with different denominators by finding a common denominator.

A Look back3 min

1.
Which is bigger: 1/2 or 1/4?
1/21/4
2.
Count on in fours from 4. The 5th number you say is
3.
3/5 = /10

B Watch me, then you4 min

Which is bigger, 2/3 or 3/4?

Watch me

3 and 4 both go into 12, so 12 is a common denominator.

Multiply the top and bottom of 2/3 by 4 to get 8/12.

Multiply the top and bottom of 3/4 by 3 to get 9/12.

9/12 is bigger than 8/12, so 3/4 is bigger than 2/3.

Now you

1.
The lowest common multiple of 3 and 5 is
2.
2/3 = /15

C Your turn5 min

1.
3/4 = /20
2.
7/10 = /20
3.
2/5 = /15. Use it to say which is bigger, 2/5 or 1/3.
4.
4/9 = /18. Use it to say which is bigger, 4/9 or 5/6.

Say it out loud: Look at your first two answers. Which is bigger, 3/4 or 7/10? How do you know?

D Spot the mistake3 min

Lou says: “1/2 of a 10 cm strip is more than 1/3 of a 60 cm strip, because 2 is less than 3.”

1.
How many cm is 1/3 of 60 cm?

E Think deeper4 min

1.
Write every whole number n so that n/12 is bigger than 1/3 and smaller than 3/4. Write them in order, smallest first:

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Fractions with a common bottom · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. 1/2

2. 20

3. 6

B

1. 15

2. 10

C

1. 15 If your child writes 8, they added 5 to the 3. The bottom was multiplied by 5, so multiply the top by 5 too.

2. 14 If your child writes 17, they added 10 to the 7 instead of multiplying. Ask what 10 times 2 is, then do the same to the 7.

3. 6. 1/3 is 5/15, so 2/5 is bigger. If your child writes 5, they added 3 to the 2. Scale the top by the same factor as the bottom.

4. 8. 5/6 is 15/18, so 5/6 is bigger.

D

1. 20 If your child writes 30, they halved the 60. One third means three equal parts, so split 60 into three.

E

1. 5, 6, 7, 8 If your child stops at 5 and 8, check whether 6 and 7 also fit between. If your child includes a fraction equal to 1/3, check whether it is bigger than 1/3.

Words to use

Say“Which number do both bottoms share, and what did you do to the top?”

Instead of“Just tell them which fraction is bigger.”

After the sheet

Draw two rectangles the same size. Split one into 4 equal parts and the other into 10. Shade 3/4 and 7/10 and see which is bigger.

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:

The half test for fractions(with a plan)
Sense check for fractions(with a plan)
Choosing the quickest method(with a plan)
Ordering fractions by sense(with a plan)

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