All Aboard! Fractions on the Toy Train

Name unit fractions and build fractions from equal train cars.

Answer Key

Cars on the train

Every toy train on this page is made of equal cars. Each bar is one whole train.

Which train has exactly 1/6 of the train shaded?

Each car of the red train is 1/3 of the whole train. Each car of the blue train is 1/7 of the whole train.

The red train has 3 cars. The blue train has 7 cars.

The shaded cars carry toy coal.

3 of the 8 equal cars carry coal. So 3/8 of the train carries coal.

Each car of Ray's toy train is 1/5 of the whole train. Ray paints 4/5 of the train green. Each car is all one color.

Ray's train has 5 equal cars. 4 cars are green, and 1 car is not green.

Parts of the whole

Think about how many equal parts make the whole and how many parts you have.

Match each description to its fraction. One fraction is not used.

1 of 6 equal partsD
5 parts, each 1/8 of the wholeE
2 parts, each 1/3 of the wholeA
3 of 4 equal partsC

A. 2/3
B. 4/3
C. 3/4
D. 1/6
E. 5/8

In the fraction 5/6, what does the 6 tell you?

A. 5 parts are shaded.
B. 6 parts are shaded.
C. There are 6 wholes.
D. The whole is cut into 6 equal parts.

The round train table is cut into equal parts. Trains are parked on the shaded parts.

Each part is 1/4 of the table. 3 parts are shaded, so 3/4 of the table is shaded.

Sort each fraction by the size of one part.

3/45/62/81/67/81/4

Made of parts of size 1/4	Made of parts of size 1/6	Made of parts of size 1/8
3/4 1/4	5/6 1/6	2/8 7/8

Train stories

Read each story about equal train cars.

Lena's toy train has 6 equal cars. She loads toy logs into 5 of the cars. The other car is empty.

Lena loads logs into 5/6 of the train. The empty car is 1/6 of the train.

10.

Ms. Kim's toy train has 8 equal cars. She paints 3 of the cars blue. Which model has only the blue cars shaded?

11.

Draw a toy train with 7 equal cars. Shade 2/7 of the train. Explain how you knew how many cars to draw and how many to shade.

I drew 7 equal cars because the 7 in 2/7 tells how many equal parts make the whole train. I shaded 2 cars because the 2 tells how many parts of size 1/7 to take.