Leo’s Fair Share
Shared Reading Books · Numeracy · Year 1Leo, Sophie and Adam were setting up a pretend café outdoors. Their teacher brought six large wooden cakes and three plates. “We can share the cakes,” said Leo. “Then everyone can have a turn in our café.”
Leo put three cakes on his plate, two on Sophie’s and one on Adam’s. Adam looked at the plates. “Mine has fewer,” he said. Leo stopped. “You are right. That is not an equal share.”
“Let’s try another way,” said Sophie. They moved all six cakes back into the middle. Each plate was empty again. Leo said, “We can give one cake to each person before we give anyone another.”
Leo gave one cake to Sophie, one to Adam and one to himself. Three cakes were still in the middle. “We have the same so far,” said Adam. “But we have not shared all the cakes yet.”
They went round the plates again. One more for Sophie. One more for Adam. One more for Leo. Now there were no cakes in the middle. Each plate held two wooden cakes.
“Two, two, two,” said Leo, checking the plates. “We shared all six, and everyone has two cakes.” Adam smiled. “No one has more, and no one has fewer this time.”
Sophie moved her two cakes far apart on her plate. “Does mine look like more now?” she asked. Leo laughed, then counted. “It is still two. Spreading them out does not give you another cake!”
The café was ready. The children took turns serving their pretend cakes. Leo remembered the empty plates and the careful sharing. “One each, then one each again,” he said. “That helped us make equal groups.”