Lesson 12

In the previous lesson, students solved problems about dividing a unit fraction by a whole number in a way that made sense to them. In this lesson, students use tape diagrams to represent division of a unit fraction by a whole number. The tape diagrams used to represent the problems are familiar to students from earlier grades. Here is a tape diagram showing \(\frac{1}{4}\), one out of 4 pieces is shaded:

One way to show \(\frac{1}{4} \div 3\) is to divide the \(\frac{1}{4}\) into 3 equal pieces.

To see how much is shaded we can divide all of the \(\frac{1}{4}\)s and see that \(\frac{1}{4} \div 3 = \frac{1}{12}\).

Students use these diagrams to understand this series of steps representing division of a unit fraction by a whole number throughout the lesson.

Activity 2: Priya’s Work