Grace’s Apple Share

Grace and Daniel had picked up sound windfall apples in Grandma’s orchard. Grandma checked them and counted twenty suitable apples. They wanted to keep three quarters for cooking and give the rest to a neighbour. Daniel looked at the basket. “How many should we keep?”

Grace knew that quarters meant four equal parts. She set out four shallow baskets on the grass. They shared the twenty apples between them, one at a time. When they finished, every basket held five. There were no apples left waiting to be shared.

“One quarter of twenty is five,” Grace said. Daniel checked by putting the four groups back together in his head. Five, ten, fifteen, twenty. Four equal groups of five rebuilt their whole collection. Now they needed to choose three of those groups.

Grandma put a cloth beside the baskets. Grace moved three groups onto it. Five and five and five made fifteen apples. “Three quarters of twenty is fifteen,” she said. The remaining basket held five apples, which was the quarter they would give away.

Daniel checked that fifteen and five made twenty. He also noticed that three quarters was more than half. Half of twenty would be ten, and fifteen was greater than ten. Grace looked at the cloth. “That makes sense. We’re keeping more than we’re giving away.”

They chose a strong bag for the neighbour’s apples. Daniel spotted a split near its handle, so Grandma found a basket instead. Grace lined it with a tea towel to stop the fruit knocking together. The five apples fitted without being squashed.

Grandma helped carry the gift to the neighbour’s gate. Grace explained the share while Daniel held the basket steady. Their neighbour offered to bring the basket back later. At home, the fifteen cooking apples were waiting on the cloth, ready for Grandma to prepare.

As the apple crumble baked, Grace drew four equal groups in her notebook and shaded three. Daniel pointed to the part left unshaded. “That’s our neighbour’s share.” Grace could see the whole plan in one picture: fifteen kept, five shared, and twenty apples accounted for.