Rounding Fractions Worksheets
This is one of those topics where students, especially the highly intelligent ones, we repeatedly ask you when in the world will you ever use this skill. You may even ask yourself the same thing. This skill is so much more about understanding the true value of fraction than anything else. The goal is to understand where it is leaning toward. The general public truly lacks this understanding and one of the world’s largest burger chains proved that years ago. They tested selling a one-third (⅓) pound burger vs. selling a one-quarter (¼) pound burger at the same price. The quarter-pounder massively outsold the third pounder. When asking people why they made that choice they said the wanted more for their money. So they thought that ¼ was larger than ⅓. While ⅓ is 33% larger in reality. These lessons and worksheets show students how to approach rounding fractional values.
Aligned Standard: 5.NF.B.7
- Nearest Half Step By Step Lesson- Kids should be comfortable with a numbers line at this and it is the key to cementing the concept for them.
- Nearest Whole Number Step By Step Lesson - It might be good to start with this lesson and then move to halves.
- Guided Lesson - We go over the big three here: halves, fractions to whole numbers, and mixed numbers to whole numbers.
- Guided Lesson Explanation - Students should be able to produce their own numbers line at this level. Some teachers like to start with prompts, which we recommend.
- Rounding Simple Fractions Worksheet 1 - We start by rounding to halves and not jumping over a denominator of 15.
- Answer Keys - These are for all the unlocked materials above.
Basic Level Practice Worksheets
The first start without any visuals or prompts. You can advance to those after using prompts.
- Simple Fractions 2 - Round the following fractions to the nearest half.
- Simple Fractions 3 - This would mean 0, 1/2, or 1.
- Halves with a Number Line Worksheet 1 - A nice way to see how simple fractions should be rounded is to use a numbers line.
- Halves with a Number Line Worksheet 2 - Break the number line into as many parts as the denominator of the fraction.
- Nearest Whole Number with a Number Line 1 - You will need to place a point of reference of all the half values available on the line.
- Nearest Whole Number with a Number Line 2 - Make sure to label the possible whole number values (0 or 1) on the numbers line. Identify where the fraction falls on the numbers line.
More Advanced Practice Worksheets
Mixed number will, many times, confuse students until they have some success with it.
- Rounding Mixed Numbers 1 - Round the following to the nearest whole number.
- Rounding Mixed Numbers 2 - Make sure to reduce your final answer.
- Rounding Mixed Numbers 3 - Take your time to proper place these values.
How Do You a Round Fraction?
We have already learned to round basic numbers to several places by now. Our original method was to evaluate the digit at our place value of interest. If it was 5 or higher, we rounded up, if it were 4 or less, we round down.
Rounding off fractions is perhaps one of the most useful skills that can be used in mathematics. Rounding of fractions involves understanding the closest value achieved value from the actual answer. Confused? Ok, let me clarify that for you. When we are rounding off a fraction, we are basically asking the question, whether the answer is near to its half, zero, or the full. This is because those three values help us clearly communicate the significance of the amount or quantity, we have present. This is why we encourage you to follow a slightly more accurate way of doing things. There are two ways of processing these types of problems and which you use is up to your individual situation and need for accuracy.
Converting to Decimals - You would use this in situations that dictate that you needed to be very accurate or more precise. The first step in rounding any fractional value is to convert the value to a decimal. Then we revert back to our normal procedure. By converting to the decimal value, it allows us to be much more accurate with our value. Also, we need to note that we previously were given the identity of the place value we needed to round to. When you have a fraction, there are no place values to speak. Your level of accuracy is often left to your discretion in these types of problems. For instance what if you were asked to round ⅝?
Divide 5 by 8 = 0.625. In most situations you would ask to round to the nearest hundredth which be the digit 2. This would therefore round to 0.63, since the lower place is a 5 or higher.
Sticking with Fractions - This is for instances were precision is really required. You just want to have a general idea of the value. For instance, let's learn to round off with the help of a few examples. Suppose we have a fraction of 99/100 that it is obvious that the number above is closer to the number below, which means that the answer will almost be equal to 1, which is the whole. In our second example, we will take a closer look at something a little more complex, like 7/12. To solve this fraction or rounding it off, we can use three different fractions and see which one it is closest too. 0/12, 6/12, and 12/12. Now pay close attention to the actual fraction, we can see that the number closes to the half, i.e., 6/12. Hence, this is how we round off fractions in mathematics.