Welcome to this deck on calculating with fractions. You'll learn the essential methods for adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions, including those tricky mixed numbers. Mastering these skills is crucial for many other topics in maths.

Let's start with adding and subtracting. The golden rule is that you can only add or subtract fractions if they have the same number on the bottom. This bottom number is called the denominator.

When the denominators are the same, the process is simple. You just add or subtract the top numbers, the numerators, and the denominator stays the same. For example, one fifth plus two fifths is three fifths.

But what if the denominators are different, like one half plus one third? You can't add them directly. First, you need to change them so they have the same denominator. This is called finding a common denominator.