Just wondering what the best way to teach fractions to year 5 is?  Would multi link cubes be a good idea?  The basis of the lesson if for the children to look at lots of different fractions and work out which ones are more than a half and less than a half.  Are multi-link a good visual aid or is there a much better way?  Not taught fractions before - apart from to year 1 which involves cutting pizza!

Multilink can be great for fraction work but  I think they are usually best for doing fractions of a number and fractions as part of a set.  If you are comparing fraction sizes with multilink you would have to have a 'whole' stick then fractional sticks too and would have to decide what your 'whole multilink' stick would be like. 

 I think I would use 'fraction walls' to compare sizes of fractions (there is electronic one I think on www.topmarks.co.uk) and most class rooms have some physical ones too.  You can also get photocopiable ones - loads on primary resources.  They are also good because you can then start looking at whether 2/3 is bigger than a half, 4/5 bigger than 5/6 etc.  Some can cope with just a visual fraction wall, others need to be able to pick up the fractions and physically compare sizes.  I think they are good because they reinforce that say 4/5 is made up of 4 bits of 1/5s etc.

Hope that helps 

Thanks for your advice!  I'll take a look.