In a previous unit, students learned to recognize and generate equivalent fractions. Earlier in this unit, they learned to add and subtract fractions with the same denominator, seeing these operations as joining and separating parts of the same whole. In this lesson, students encounter situations that involve combining and removing fractions with different denominators (limited to 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8), prompting them to rely on their understanding of equivalence to reason about the problems. This work prepares students to use equivalent fractions to join tenths and hundredths in upcoming lessons.

Students are not expected to reason symbolically, or to write fractional expressions with different denominators and then rewrite them with a common denominator. Instead, they reason using their intuitive understanding of equivalence, which they have begun to build since grade 3, and with the support of visual representations as needed.