Question Video: Identifying Halves and Quarters of a Shape Mathematics • 1st Grade

Video Transcript

Consider the given shape. Complete the sentence. The shape is cut into what. Halves or quarters? Complete the sentence. One what of the shape is shaded. Half or quarter?

We’re shown a picture of a shape here, and we need to think about it or consider it because we’re given two sentences that we need to complete. These two sentences are quite interesting because they’re about two slightly different things. The first sentence is about the way that the shape has been cut. So in a way, we just need to look at that black lines on the shape. And the second sentence is about the way that the shape has been shaded. So in a way, when we’re answering this part of the question, we need to just think about the pink-shaded part.

So to begin with, let’s look at the black lines. The shape is cut into what. We’re given two words to choose from. It’s either been cut into halves or quarters. To help us, let’s sketch what’s happened to this shape. It started off as a circle, but we can see two lines have been drawn on it. These have cut it into parts. Do you remember what we call it when we divide a shape once into two equal parts? These are called halves, aren’t they? But our shape hasn’t been cut just once; it’s been cut again. So now, there are four equal parts. It’s been cut into quarters. Because the shape we’re shown has been divided into four equal parts, we can say the shape is cut into quarters.

In the next sentence, we need to think about the part of the shape that’s been shaded. One what of the shape is shaded, one half or one quarter? And remember, we’re not looking at the number of pieces now. We’re looking just at the shaded area. In fact, let’s make a sketch of our circle and we’ll color in the part that’s shaded. Looks a bit like this, doesn’t it? Is one half or one quarter of the shape shaded? We can see that one half of the shape has been shaded. The shape has been cut into four equal pieces, so we can say that it’s been cut into quarters. We can also say one half of the shape is shaded.