Comparing Fractions to One Half

About this worksheet

A free printable 4th grade worksheet on the benchmark fraction 1/2: sort 10 fractions into less than, equal to and greater than one half, then use 1/2 to compare 8 pairs like 3/8 and 4/7. Answer key included. Expect it to take fourth graders about 15 to 20 minutes with careful work. Shade the parts lightly with a colored pencil to see each fraction.

On this sheet

and compare it to the denominator. Less than 1/2 Equal to 1/2 Greater than 1/2 Use 1/2 to compare. Write <, > or = in each circle.

Tips for using it

• Fold a strip of paper into equal parts to check a tricky one.
• Before naming a fraction, have the child count all the parts and write the denominator first, then count the shaded parts for the numerator; most errors come from doing it the other way.
• On the number line sheet, count the gaps between 0 and 1, not the tick marks; seven ticks make eight gaps, so the dot is in eighths.
• To compare fractions with the same numerator, remind kids that more pieces means smaller pieces: 1/6 is less than 1/4.

Printing tips

Download the PDF and print at 100% (or “fit to page” on A4). Page 1 is the worksheet and page 2 is the answer key with the answers in red; print just page 1 if you want to keep the answers for checking. Free for personal, family and classroom use.