Question

draw the counters and show the groups
a, how many counters would 1/4 of 12 counters be.

Answer 1

i need an answer to my question

Answer 2

"of" almost always means you multiply
1/4 of 12 = 1/4 * 12 = 12/4 = 3

Answer 3

you know, you don't need any math to do this.
get 12 counters -- or 12 of anything
move 4 of them to separate rows. These will start your 4 groups (because you want 1/4 of them in each group)
Now start moving counters, 4 at a time, so the groups always have the same number
by the time you run out of counters, you should have 3 counters in each group.