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Equivalent Fractions on the Multiplication Matrix

Equivalent Fractions on the Multiplication Matrix

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I’d been staring at equivalent fractions for eons and never knew it. Check out this multiplication matrix filled with them! Way cool! Starting simply, look at the first two rows in the upper left.  The number in the first row (numberator) is ‘1’ and the number in the second row (denominator) is ‘2’.  Those numbers represent the fraction 1/2.  All the numbers in the two rows to the right reflect the equivalent fractions. This works for any two numbers picked…

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CCSS: Teaching Area in Third Grade

CCSS: Teaching Area in Third Grade

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My son came home with this project in the third grade and I thought it was brilliant! But then, I was reminded of his third grade teacher, Mrs. Durbin, and it made sense. She understands how to teach mathematics effectively and is always doing fun, hands-on activities and projects with her students. For this project, Mrs. Durbin was working with her students on the concept of area. Students created a design on inch graph paper and then indicated the total…

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PomPom Fractions – A CCSS Activity for Third, Fourth and Fifth Graders

PomPom Fractions – A CCSS Activity for Third, Fourth and Fifth Graders

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Recent research points to a students’ early understanding of fractions as critical for later success in mathematics. We need to give our students plenty of hands-on experiences with fraction concepts along with meaningful dialogue about what they are learning. The photo above is an example of developing the idea that fractional parts of a whole unit need to be equal in size. If you feel the colors of the pom poms will get in the way of learning, supply students…

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Teaching Fractions Using Money

Teaching Fractions Using Money

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Learning about fractions, parts of a whole, can be tough for a lot of kids. Finding a variety of ways to teach fractions will give them opportunities to think about and make sense of fractions. Using coins as fractional values of a dollar can be fun way to reinforce fraction concepts. I included the front and back faces (obverse and reverse) of each coin. If showing two faces for each coin confuses your child/student, just remove one of them. At…

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Easy Strategies to Get Students to Understand Fractions: Multiplying, Dividing, Simplifying, Equivalence

Easy Strategies to Get Students to Understand Fractions: Multiplying, Dividing, Simplifying, Equivalence

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Fractions, or parts of a whole, have often been difficult for students to understand. This is often the result of rhymes such as “Mine is not to reason why, just invert and multiply”. But when we teach fractions this way, math become a set of mysterious rules and procedures that need to be memorized. But if we can show students why operations on fractions work the way they do, we take out the mystery of math. Then math begins to…

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