Grade 2 Halves, Thirds, and Fourths
Naming and comparing halves, thirds and fourths in grade 2. Fourteen questions about equal parts of a whole, free to print with the answer key.
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Three different problem sets — same skill, same layout, fresh numbers.
Preview — Set A
Name and compare equal parts of a whole. Write the fraction that answers each question.
- 1.A rectangle is split into 3 equal parts. What fraction is 1 part?
- 2.A pizza is cut into 4 equal slices. What fraction are 2 slices?
- 3.How many thirds make one whole?
- 4.A ribbon is cut into 3 equal parts. What fraction are 2 parts?
- 5.A cake is cut into 2 equal parts. What fraction is 1 part?
- 6.A pan of brownies is cut into 4 equal pieces. What fraction are 3 pieces?
- 7.Which is bigger: 1/2 of a pizza or 1/4 of the same pizza?
- 8.Which is bigger: 1/3 of a ribbon or 1/2 of the same ribbon?
- 9.A circle is cut into 3 equal parts. What fraction are all 3 parts?
- 10.A square is folded into 4 equal parts. What fraction is 1 part?
- 11.You share 1 sandwich equally with 1 friend. What fraction do you each get?
- 12.You share 1 orange equally among 3 friends. What fraction does each get?
- 13.Two halves of the same cookie are put together. How much cookie is that?
- 14.A shape is cut into 4 parts that are NOT the same size. Are they fourths? Write yes or no.
What this worksheet covers
This is a 14-problem word problems for grade 2 fractions, printed in black and white with the key on page two. Within that, each problem arrives as a few sentences of context rather than a bare expression and several problems use mixed numbers, which have to be handled without dropping the whole-number part. Problems 5 and 10, for instance, are "A cake is cut into 2 equal parts. What fraction is 1 part?" and "A square is folded into 4 equal parts. What fraction is 1…".
Skills practised
The grade 2 fractions sequence covers naming halves, thirds and fourths of a shape, and half or a quarter of a set; this page sits inside it. What a student is asked to do here is grade 2 Halves, Thirds, and Fourths. To finish it, a student has to read a situation and choose an operation before computing and work in fractional units and give the answer in lowest terms. Ten different answers appear across the fourteen problems, so a student cannot copy one result down the page.
About the word problems format
The 14 story problems each get a full line and an answer rule; problem 5, "A cake is cut into 2 equal parts. What fraction is 1 part?" is one, and the answer key writes the unit with every answer. Fractions of recipes, distances and shares are where the abstract unit becomes a real quantity.
Set A, Set B and Set C
Set A is the sheet as it was first published on MathSheetLab, and Sets B and C were derived from it problem by problem: each number became a slot redrawn with the same shape, and every answer was recomputed exactly. Where Set A's problem 8 is "Which is bigger: 1/3 of a ribbon or 1/2 of the same ribbon?", Set B's is "A square is folded into 3 equal parts. What is one part…".
14 story problem(s) drawn from the fractions:2 context family (equal parts of a whole (halves, thirds and fourths)) — parameters inferred from the standard and grade
How to use this worksheet
Grade 2 attention runs short, so split these fourteen fractions problems over two or three sittings rather than pushing through in one; a number line or counters within reach is a strategy, not a failure. Keep the key face down until all fourteen problems are finished, then go through the misses together rather than only totalling the score.
One mistake to watch for
A larger denominator is taken to mean a larger fraction: 1/8 is judged bigger than 1/4. On this grade 2 word problems, problem 10 ("A square is folded into 4 equal parts. What fraction is 1…") is the kind of item where it shows.
Whole-number thinking — eight is more than four — is being applied to the size of the pieces.
Fold a strip into fourths and another into eighths and compare one piece of each; more pieces means smaller pieces.
Other grade 2 fractions formats
The same skill in the other formats available at this grade.
- Drill — Grade 1 Halves and Fourths, 12 problems
- Timed Drill — Grade 2 Fractions Timed Drill, 60 problems
- Missing Number — Grade 2 Fractions Missing Number, 24 problems
- Mixed Review — Grade 2 Fractions Mixed Review, 24 problems
A step either side
The same format one grade down and one grade up — the easier sheet is often the faster fix when this one is not landing.
- Grade 3 Fractions Word Problems — grade 3, 10 problems
Word Problems sheets in other grade 2 topics
Print as many copies of this grade 2 fractions word problems as you need; Sets A, B and C and their keys are six separate PDFs, all free.