Halving

Please share this story with your child and let them look at the pictures. At the end of the story is an activity I’d like them to do.

Here are Ted and Pup. They are usually best friends.

They haven’t been very good friends recently. They keep arguing with each other. They are not very good at sharing. Earlier they had bananas to eat. This is what happened.

There were 2 bananas. Ted put them both on his plate. Pup had no bananas. Is this fair? What should they do? I had to tell them about sharing. They needed to have half each. This means they both have the same.

They shared the bananas. They both had half. Ted had 1 banana and Pup had 1 banana. Half of 2 is 1.

Then they had apples. This is what happened.

Now Pup had 2 apples. Ted had none. Ted had zero apples. Is this fair? What should they do? I reminded them to share. They needed to have half of the apples each. Half of 2 is 1. They worked together to share the apples.

They were still hungry so they decided to have some oranges. How can they share 4 oranges so that they have half each? They both need the same number of oranges on their plate.

If Ted has 4 oranges and Pup has 0, is that fair? If Pup has 3 oranges and Ted has 1, is that half each? No! They worked together to share the oranges and had half each.

Pup had 2 oranges and Ted had 2 oranges. Half of 4 is 2.

They decided the best thing to do was to share everything fairly so that they always have half each. They put strawberries on a plate. How many strawberries are there?

They put the plate between them and then shared them so they had half each.

    

There were 6 strawberries. They shared them so they had 3 each. That was fair. They both had the same number of strawberries. Half of 6 is 3.

All day they worked together to share their food. They shared biscuits, tomatoes and breakfast cereal. They always made sure they shared fairly and had half each. Half means exactly the same on both plates.

Now that Ted and Pup know how to share their food so they have half each they have stopped arguing and are much happier!

Activity

Ask your child to collect two soft toys and two plates. Collect a number of different foods or toys that your child can share between the two plates. Start by giving your child two items that are the same (2 bananas, apples, toy cars etc) Ask them to share the items so there are half on each plate. Remind them half means that there is the same on both plates. Repeat with two items, then increase to sharing 4 items, 6, 8 and then 10 items. Keep reinforcing the fact that both plates need the same number of items on them. Once the items have been shared correctly reinforce by saying ‘half of 2 is 1’ or ‘half of 6 is 3’

If you want to extend this activity you could use the frame from yesterday.

Write the number of objects given to your child on the sheet. They share the objects and then they write what half is onto the frame. The completed frame will look like this.

This is an activity the children can continue independently throughout the day. It is also something you could use with them at meal times or when they are playing with siblings. If your child has got playdough they could make cakes to share between the toys. They could make a playdough birthday cake for each toy and share candles between the cakes so they have half each. The important point they need to learn is that if they are sharing items so each person/toy has half, both must have the same. Some children may make the link between halving and doubling. For example they might spot by looking at the completed sheet that half of 10 is 5, and that double 5 is 10. If they notice this reinforce it throughout the activity.