Add and Subtract Like Fractions Worksheets
Math often becomes difficult for students when we start doing operations with fractions. This is not that the actual math is that difficult. Students simply do not understand the true nature of what a fraction is. The concept is very abstract for children at this age. I highly encourage teachers to spend a full day explaining this concept and make sure that every kid starts with solid footing. I promise it will make teaching fractional operations so much easier and straight forward. Once the concept that the value of the numerator represents the number of parts and denominator is how much makes up one complete unit everything just falls into place. This pack of worksheets, lessons, and quizzes show students how to subtract or add like fractions.
Aligned Standard: Grade 4 Fractions - 4.NF.3
- Step-by-Step Lesson- A simple 1-2 walkthrough. We focus on the top values. Add the hairs on their head.
- Guided Lesson - We start to mix adding and subtracting of likes.
- Guided Lesson Explanation - This one is drawn out; maybe a little too much.
- Practice Worksheet - You'll find that I threw in adding three fractions. You can have them reduce the values, too, but I left that up to you.
- Matching Worksheet - Match the given operations to their sum or difference.
- Answer Keys - These are for all the unlocked materials above.
Homework Sheets
I set these up as three different skills: like fraction addition, subtraction, and both.
- Homework 1 (-) - Subtract the fractions and simplify your answers. You can put in the end value of your choice.
- Homework 2 (+) - If the denominators are the same, we can just add the numerators.
- Homework 3 (+ & -) - Denominators are same, so we can subtract just the numerators.
Practice Worksheets
The same style, just the numbers are a bit backwards.
- Practice 1 (+) - Find the final value of the following problems by adding the fractions and simplify your answers.
- Practice 2 (-) - These all focus on finding differences, to see if they have any trouble there.
- Practice 3 (Mixed) - All of these exercises cover a mixture of both of these operations to help you get a complete picture.
Math Skill Quizzes
Unlike the two preceding sections, all of these problems are mixed (addition and subtraction).
- Quiz 1 - A real nice mix of work. The left side is all sums and the right is all about the differences.
- Quiz 2 - Remember to simplify all your answers. We follow the same formula as the previous quiz.
- Quiz 3 - This is a bit more advanced because we are comparing three fractions at a time.
How to Find Add and Subtract Like Fractions
In mathematics, sum and difference is not merely confined to simple whole numbers. These mathematical operations apply to fractions as well. A fraction is an integer that represents the part of a whole and they have different types, like fractions and unlike fractions. Like fractions are those fractions that have the same denominator (lower digit). When it comes to finding the sum and difference of like fractions, it is pretty simple. To get a grip on adding and subtracting fractions, follow the steps:
Before you focus on the operation applied to fraction, make sure that the denominators are same. They can't be like fractions if the denominators are not same. For example: you can add 3/4 + 2/4, but you cannot add 3/4 + 1/5. The first equation consists of like fractions and the other consists of unlike fractions.
To find the sum of like fractions you simply add the numerators (top) value. Going back to our previous example, 3/4 + 2/4 = 5/4 we just added the numerators (3 + 2) together to find the value of the numerator of the sum.
To find a difference between two like fractions we follow a similar procedure and just subtract the larger numerator by the smaller numerator. For example if we were looking for the difference between 4/5 and 2/5, we would set it up as: 4/5 – 2/5 = 2/5. When we subtract the numerators (4-2) we end up with 2.