Fractions Street - Weekly Report Week 4

IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS ANYMORE...


Do you have difficulty with fractions? I know, up until this week's math class, that I have experienced great difficulty with ordering fractions, and other operations that involved fractions. This is not the case anymore and I am so excited to share the methods that I have been taught with you so that you do not have this issue either!

Let's get started!

First off I want to discuss how scared I was of the words fractions and divide in the same sentence. Growing up and no understanding math proved to be difficult enough - did teachers really want me to divide parts of something? It is now clear to me, through much simpler methods, of how this can be done.

DID YOU KNOW COMMON DENOMINATORS CAN BE USED NOT JUST FOR ADDITION AND SUBTRACTION BUT ALSO FOR DIVISION??!!

I didn't either... until now!

We learned that you can either just divide straight across the fractions (numerator divided by numerator 2 and denominator 1 by denominator 2) instead of cross multiplying or flipping or doing anything else just plain silly with the fractions. We also learned that for those fractions that might be difficult to divide to create common denominators to help us solve the division equation! Fractions made easy - who would have ever thought!

In addition to the mind-blowing and "my whole life was a lie" feeling in class this past week we also had the chance to be hands on with some manipulatives. After being read a story of "Mr. Tan's square tile story" we, as individuals in a group, were instructed to complete the square tile with the fractions of the tile we had. 

As you can see from the above two photos it took multiple trial and errors before I achieved the final and complete tile and it MAY HAVE taken more fails than posted above.... may have.

Mr. Tan's tile is fixed!

Below I attached a similar activity offered of forming/ constructing a tile or square with different "broken" shapes and triangles! Try it and tell me how you find the activity! Good luck:)

http://handmadekidsart.com/heart-math-puzzle/

 This taught the class many different things but I feel like what I took away from it the most was having a firm understanding of fractions as a whole. I feel like this activity would be so beneficial in a Junior/ Intermediate classroom for many reasons. First and I feel most importantly, it creates an overall understanding of what fractions are. Fractions are a part of a whole and there could be many smaller or larger fractions - like in the tile example - that add up to a whole number.

I have included a resource that provides access and where to find certain apps for teachers/educators to use in their classrooms in relations to FRACTIONS!!!! Fraction games and apps to keep the kids loving math and learning.

http://imaginationsoup.net/best-fraction-apps-kids/


Overall fantastic class and I am so happy to no longer be afraid of fractions but instead love teaching it and teach my students of the future to love it too!

Next stop INTEGER TRAIN!!!