Year 2 Teaching Sequence 12 - Halves and quarters of shapes [two days]
Prerequisites:
 Find halves of shapes by folding (see Oral and Mental Starter 12 and Year 1 Teaching Sequence Autumn 12).
Overview of progression:
Children fold shapes into halves, then quarters in different ways. They recognise which shapes are divided in
halves/quarters and which are not. They find three quarters of familiar shapes and five instructions to a partner about
colouring in quarters, halves and three quarters.
Note that children can often miss the point that halves need to be equal, and this will further hinder them in Spring
Teaching Sequence 12 when they are asked to find halves and quarters of numbers.
Watch out for children whose fine motor skills make the accurate folding necessary difficult, some subtle TA support may
be necessary.
© Original teaching sequence copyright Hamilton Trust, who give permission for it to be adapted as wished by individual users.
Y2 Maths TS12 – Aut – 2days
Objectives:
 Find halves and quarters of shapes by folding;
 Recognise which shapes are divided in halves/quarters and which are not.
Whole class
Group activities
Paired/indiv practice
Show chn a piece of A4 paper, and fold it in
half, and then open it out again. What have I
done? What do we call each part? Can you
remember how we write them? Write ½ on
each part. How many halves make a whole?
Fold an identical piece of paper into quarters,
by folding it in half and half again. I’ve folded
this piece of paper into four equal parts we
call these quarters. Write ¼ on each section.
How many quarters make a whole? How many
quarters make one half?
Give each pair of chn a square and a circle
from Activity sheet (see resources) and ask
them to fold their shape in half and then half
again. Explain that folding it in half and half
again is a good way to make sure each part is
the same size. Discuss how the quarters of the
circles and the squares look different. Show
chn a square folded in half along a diagonal. Is
this shape folded in half? How do you know?
Fold again to show quarters. Ask if chn can
think of another way to fold the square into
quarters, such as the way below.
Group of 4-5 children
Fold one of the shapes from Activity
sheet (see resources) in half, and
challenge chn to try and fold their in a
different way to yours. Rpt with each
shape, and then rpt but this time
folding them into quarters.
Easier: It may be that some chn need
more practice in folding into halves
before moving onto just a few examples
of folding into quarters.
Harder: Move onto quarters more
quickly.
Ask chn to ‘tick’ and ‘cross’ the
shapes on Activity sheet (see
resources) according to whether
they are correctly divided into
halves or quarters. They can use a
red pencil to correct them!
Harder: They could work out if
the person got more than half
right!
© Original teaching sequence copyright Hamilton Trust, who give permission for it to be adapted as wished by individual users.
Resources
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A4 paper
Activity sheet
- square and
circle
Activity sheet
- different
shapes to cut
out and fold,
copy onto A3
Activity sheet
- shapes
divided into
two or four
parts
Go Maths PCM 32
Y2 Maths TS12 – Aut – 2days
Fold an A4 piece of paper into two parts, but
not equally and open it out. Has this piece of
paper been folded in half? There are two
parts. Discuss how both parts need to be
equal. If I was to tear this piece of paper
along this fold and share it between two chn,
it wouldn’t be fair; one would have a bigger
piece than the other. Rpt folding into four
unequal parts.
Draw a square, and divide it into quarters.
Colour in one quarter at a time, until you have
three quarters shaded, each time asking how
much is coloured in? Record ¾ on the board.
Ask chn to draw a square on their whiteboard
and to colour in ¾ in a different way to yours.
Show a variety of chn’s boards.
Rpt with a rectangle and a circle.
Group of 4-6 children
Give each pair a square piece of appear.
Fold it into quarters, and colour half
red. Try to make it look different from
the others (e.g. top, bottom, left, right
rectangles, or triangles).
Share their results and discuss how the
halves look different but are all half of
the square. Rpt with another square,
this time asking chn to colour in one
quarter. How can you divide your paper
into quarters?
Rpt this time asking chn to colour three
Chn each ‘secretly’ colour each
quarter of the first square on
Activity sheet (see resources),
using only three colours. They
then describe how they have
coloured it to their pattern, who
tries to colour the second square
to match their partners. They
then swap, and repeat with the
next pair of squares.
Easier: Use Activity sheet (see
resources) instead.
© Original teaching sequence copyright Hamilton Trust, who give permission for it to be adapted as wished by individual users.

Activity sheet
- squares
divided into
quarters
Go Maths PCM
104
Y2 Maths TS12 – Aut – 2days
quarters. How can you work out how
much to colour?
Easier: Show them an example of each
before they colour their own in.
© Original teaching sequence copyright Hamilton Trust, who give permission for it to be adapted as wished by individual users.
Y2 Maths TS12 – Aut – 2days