Add and Subtract Mixed Numbers with Fraction Bars
Print 4th grade mixed number worksheets: break fractions into sums, show mixed numbers on fraction bars, and add and subtract with regrouping. 12 versions.
Worksheet version 1 of 12. The answer key matches the current version.
Break each fraction into a sum two ways. Read or shade the fraction bars, and write each amount as a mixed number and an improper fraction. Then add and subtract the mixed numbers, regrouping a whole when you need to.
A. Write each fraction as a sum of unit fractions, then as a sum of two fractions in another way.
1) 7/12 = (unit fractions)
7/12 = (another way)
2) 5/10 = (unit fractions)
5/10 = (another way)
3) 5/8 = (unit fractions)
5/8 = (another way)
4) 3/4 = (unit fractions)
3/4 = (another way)
B. Each bar is one whole. Read or shade the bars, then write the missing forms.
1) Write the shaded amount.
Mixed number: Improper fraction:
2) Shade 1 2/3.
Improper fraction:
3) Shade 5/4.
Mixed number:
4) Write the shaded amount.
Mixed number: Improper fraction:
C. Add or subtract. Write each answer as a mixed number.
1) 6 1/6 − 2 5/6 =
2) 3 3/4 + 1 3/4 =
3) 1 2/6 + 1 1/6 =
4) 4 1/3 + 3 1/3 =
5) 2 3/8 − 1 2/8 =
6) 4 6/8 − 2 5/8 =
About this worksheet
A fraction counts parts of the same size, so it can be broken into smaller counts of those parts: 5/8 is 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8, and it is also 2/8 + 3/8. The same idea turns a mixed number into an improper fraction. Each whole is a full bar of eighths, so 2 3/8 is 8/8 + 8/8 + 3/8 = 19/8.
Part A breaks four fractions into unit fractions and into one other sum of two fractions, so there is more than one right answer for the second line. Part B draws whole fraction bars: two are shaded for students to read as a mixed number and an improper fraction, one gives a mixed number to shade, and one gives an improper fraction to shade. Part C has three sums and three differences with like denominators (thirds, fourths, sixths and eighths). One sum makes an extra whole from its fraction parts, and one difference needs a whole regrouped into parts first, like 4 1/6 − 1 5/6 = 3 7/6 − 1 5/6. Answers are left in the same denominator, as 4th grade does not require simplifying.
Practice aligned to CCSS 4.NF.B.3b and 4.NF.B.3c.
Before this: adding fractions with like denominators and subtracting fractions with like denominators. Next: multiplying a fraction by a whole number and fraction word problems. More practice: fraction worksheets and 4th grade math worksheets.
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