{"id":2252,"date":"2012-07-25T15:49:22","date_gmt":"2012-07-25T23:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kidnexions.com\/blog\/?p=2252"},"modified":"2012-09-09T11:05:16","modified_gmt":"2012-09-09T19:05:16","slug":"easy-strategies-to-get-students-to-understand-fractions-multiplying-dividing-simplifying-equivalence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252","title":{"rendered":"Easy Strategies to Get Students to Understand Fractions: Multiplying, Dividing, Simplifying, Equivalence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Easy Strategies to get Students to Understand Fractions: Multiplying, Dividing, Simplifying\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TIYAU3Qiiog?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\nFractions, or parts of a whole, have often been difficult for students to understand.  This is often the result of rhymes such as &#8220;Mine is not to reason why, just invert and multiply&#8221;.  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 make sense.<\/p>\n<p>In this video, I share strategies to teach multiplying fractions, dividing fractions, simplifying fractions, and finding equivalent fractions using graph paper and the power of the number &#8216;1&#8217; so that fractions actually makes sense.<\/p>\n<p>CCSS:  4.NF.1; 4.NF.2; 4.NF.3; 4.NF.4; 5.NF.1; 5.NF.2; 5.NF.3; 5.NF.4; 5.NF.5; 5.NF.6; 5.NF.7<\/p>\n<p>Other fraction lessons:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/kidnexions.com\/blog\/?p=2392\" target=\"_blank\">Teaching Fractions Using Money<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/kidnexions.com\/blog\/?p=2483\">PomPom Fractions: A Commom Core lesson for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/kidnexions.com\/blog\/?p=2202\" target=\"_blank\">Multiplication of Fractions: What Does it Mean?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fractions, or parts of a whole, have often been difficult for students to understand. This is often the result of rhymes such as &#8220;Mine is not to reason why, just invert and multiply&#8221;. 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&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,51,45],"tags":[101,102,120,122,69,118,88,67,21,22,119,61,121],"class_list":["post-2252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-math-night-2","category-kids-and-math-3-5","category-number-sense","tag-ccss","tag-common-core-state-standards","tag-dividing-fractions","tag-equivalent-fractions","tag-family-math-night","tag-fractions","tag-hands-on-math","tag-k-5-math","tag-karyn-hodgens","tag-kidnexions","tag-multiplying-fractions","tag-number-sense-2","tag-simplifying-fractions"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Easy Strategies to Get Students to Understand Fractions: Multiplying, Dividing, Simplifying, Equivalence - Karyn&#039;s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Easy Strategies to Get Students to Understand Fractions: Multiplying, Dividing, Simplifying, Equivalence - Karyn&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fractions, or parts of a whole, have often been difficult for students to understand. This is often the result of rhymes such as &#8220;Mine is not to reason why, just invert and multiply&#8221;. 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... Read More Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Karyn&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/familymathnight\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-25T23:49:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-09-09T19:05:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Karyn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Karyn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Karyn\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8315e40892235d198a376ee61ef7f093\"},\"headline\":\"Easy Strategies to Get Students to Understand Fractions: Multiplying, Dividing, Simplifying, Equivalence\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-07-25T23:49:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-09-09T19:05:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252\"},\"wordCount\":174,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"CCSS\",\"Common Core State Standards\",\"dividing fractions\",\"equivalent fractions\",\"family math night\",\"fractions\",\"hands-on math\",\"K-5 math\",\"karyn hodgens\",\"kidnexions\",\"multiplying fractions\",\"number sense\",\"simplifying fractions\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Family Math Night\",\"Grades 3-5\",\"Number and Operations\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252\",\"name\":\"Easy Strategies to Get Students to Understand Fractions: Multiplying, Dividing, Simplifying, Equivalence - Karyn&#039;s Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-07-25T23:49:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-09-09T19:05:16+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Easy Strategies to Get Students to Understand Fractions: Multiplying, Dividing, Simplifying, Equivalence\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Karyn's Blog\",\"description\":\"Ideas, Lessons, and Musings on Kids&#039; Math\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Family Math Night\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fmnlogo-large.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fmnlogo-large.png\",\"width\":712,\"height\":206,\"caption\":\"Family Math Night\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/familymathnight\",\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/familymathnight\",\"https:\/\/youtube.com\/familymathnight\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8315e40892235d198a376ee61ef7f093\",\"name\":\"Karyn\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8822970fc0e614aab3c5814aa4e2f399870dbe6a34aca22991e0204c455f23c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8822970fc0e614aab3c5814aa4e2f399870dbe6a34aca22991e0204c455f23c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Karyn\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?author=2\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Easy Strategies to Get Students to Understand Fractions: Multiplying, Dividing, Simplifying, Equivalence - Karyn&#039;s Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Easy Strategies to Get Students to Understand Fractions: Multiplying, Dividing, Simplifying, Equivalence - Karyn&#039;s Blog","og_description":"Fractions, or parts of a whole, have often been difficult for students to understand. This is often the result of rhymes such as &#8220;Mine is not to reason why, just invert and multiply&#8221;. 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... Read More Read More","og_url":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252","og_site_name":"Karyn&#039;s Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/facebook.com\/familymathnight","article_published_time":"2012-07-25T23:49:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-09-09T19:05:16+00:00","author":"Karyn","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Karyn","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252"},"author":{"name":"Karyn","@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8315e40892235d198a376ee61ef7f093"},"headline":"Easy Strategies to Get Students to Understand Fractions: Multiplying, Dividing, Simplifying, Equivalence","datePublished":"2012-07-25T23:49:22+00:00","dateModified":"2012-09-09T19:05:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252"},"wordCount":174,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["CCSS","Common Core State Standards","dividing fractions","equivalent fractions","family math night","fractions","hands-on math","K-5 math","karyn hodgens","kidnexions","multiplying fractions","number sense","simplifying fractions"],"articleSection":["Family Math Night","Grades 3-5","Number and Operations"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252","url":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252","name":"Easy Strategies to Get Students to Understand Fractions: Multiplying, Dividing, Simplifying, Equivalence - Karyn&#039;s Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-07-25T23:49:22+00:00","dateModified":"2012-09-09T19:05:16+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=2252#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Easy Strategies to Get Students to Understand Fractions: Multiplying, Dividing, Simplifying, Equivalence"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/","name":"Karyn's Blog","description":"Ideas, Lessons, and Musings on Kids&#039; Math","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Family Math Night","url":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fmnlogo-large.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/fmnlogo-large.png","width":712,"height":206,"caption":"Family Math Night"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/facebook.com\/familymathnight","https:\/\/instagram.com\/familymathnight","https:\/\/youtube.com\/familymathnight"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8315e40892235d198a376ee61ef7f093","name":"Karyn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8822970fc0e614aab3c5814aa4e2f399870dbe6a34aca22991e0204c455f23c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8822970fc0e614aab3c5814aa4e2f399870dbe6a34aca22991e0204c455f23c2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Karyn"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.familymathnight.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?author=2"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2252"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2497,"href":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2252\/revisions\/2497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}