This team-building task is designed to develop students' team-working skills. If you wish to learn more about these skills, and find other team-builder tasks, take a look at this article.

Unit fractions are the first fractions children meet, and here we discover some very surprising and interesting characteristics of these familiar numbers. Some of these characteristics were known to the ancient Egyptians whilst other conjectures are yet to be proved. Whilst meeting both old and new mathematical ideas, students can improve their fluency in addition and subtraction of fractions and be challenged to generalize and explain their findings.

The topic of music can make a good connection between science and mathematics. The nature of sound and the working of the ear are rich areas of applied mathematics. The ratio emphasis follows from harmonics or overtones and rests on ideas like lowest common multiple.

This article is for elementary teachers putting together fraction units. There is a discussion of activities and misconceptions.

This Nrich problem will help to improve learners' knowledge of factors, especially those in the usual multiplication tables, and encourages them to use trial and improvement.

In this Nrich problem, the familiar context of sharing provides an opportunity in which to explore fractions in a variety of ways. The task involves finding fractional quantities of whole numbers as well as dividing a unit into equal pieces.

This Nrich problem starts with a simple situation which can be analyzed quickly using mental methods, but which provides a starting point for tackling a more challenging problem. The challenge can be tackled at many different levels, using trial and improvement (perhaps using spreadsheets), looking for number patterns, or with a more formal algebraic approach.

Ordering fractions can seem like quite a mundane and routine task. This Nrich problem encourages students to take a fresh look at the process of comparing fractions, and offers lots of opportunities to practice manipulating fractions in an engaging context where students can pose questions and make conjectures.

This Nrich activity provides a context for practicing counting on in 1s and 10s (and later 100s). Children will also be invited to find out how far from 50 they end up so they will be practicing finding the difference between two numbers. It encourages children to find more than one way of getting to a solution.

This Nrich can be very engaging. It has the ability to introduce pupils to some logical reasoning as well as being solvable by trial and improvement.

This Nrich problem is useful for those pupils who are coming to terms with spatial representation of fractions where area is concerned rather than just length. Pupils' visualizations vary a great deal and this may prove very difficult for some and yet readily accessible to others.

This Nrich problem provides an opportunity to find equivalent fractions and carry out some simple additions and subtractions of fractions in a context that may challenge and motivate students.

This Nrich activity gives the pupils opportunities to use and develop their visualizing skills in conjunction with the knowledge of fractions. It's quite a contrast to just dealing with fractions numerically.

This simple Nrich game is designed to help children become more familiar with common coins in the UK, and to find fractional quantities of amounts of money. The fractions involved are slightly more challenging than those found in Fraction Card Game. Higher-order thinking is required in order to play strategically.

This Nrich game offers students an opportunity to practice calculating fractions and percentages of amounts.

This Nrich problem gives practice in calculating with fractions in a challenging setting. It also requires the use of factors and multiples. While doing the problem learners will need to express a smaller whole number as a fraction of a larger one and find equivalent fractions. This activity will require some estimating and trial and improvement, combined with working systematically.

This Nrich problem gives practice in calculating with fractions and encourages different ways of representing and recording.

This Nrich problem is an accessible context in which pupils can apply their knowledge of number properties. It provides a great opportunity for learners to reason logically and to communicate their reasoning with others.

This Nrich problem follows on from Keep It Simple and Egyptian Fractions
These three problems together offer students an opportunity to engage with some mathematical ideas in depth and not just with the rather mechanical process of adding and subtracting fractions.

This problem in particular requires students to compare fractions and may deepen their understanding of their relative sizes.

This Nrich problem requires children to apply their knowledge of factors and multiples, and is a good way of making the link between sharing, division and multiples/factors. It may also be used to introduce learners to the fact that a problem can have more than one solution and that the solutions can be generalized. It can be approached in many different ways so can be a useful context in which to talk about different ways of recording and different methods of solving problems.