{"id":3028,"date":"2013-01-05T13:08:09","date_gmt":"2013-01-05T21:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kidnexions.com\/blog\/?p=3028"},"modified":"2013-01-13T13:10:41","modified_gmt":"2013-01-13T21:10:41","slug":"fractions-understanding-the-whole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=3028","title":{"rendered":"Fractions:  Understanding the Whole"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_3044\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3044\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/kidnexions.com\/blog\/?attachment_id=3044\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3044\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/kidnexions.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/2013-01-10-08.54.33-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Fractions: Understanding the Whole\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3044\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/2013-01-10-08.54.33-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/2013-01-10-08.54.33-450x337.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3044\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">www.FamilyMathNight.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>Getting students to understand fractions begins with an understanding of the &#8216;whole&#8217;.  <\/p>\n<p>Take a look at the three designs in the photo.  Begin with the question, &#8220;What do you notice?&#8221;  Students will say obvious things like, &#8220;There is one hexagon and two trapezoids in the first design&#8221;, or &#8220;The center design is the largest.&#8221;  Accept and encourage all these responses as they will help students build confidence.  <\/p>\n<p>If no-one offers the idea that each design is half red, prompt them by asking, &#8220;What do you notice about the color red in each of the designs?&#8221;  Students will often jump into equating &#8216;the color red&#8217; with the number of red blocks in each design.  Try and get them to move beyond the obvious to see how the color red relates to the design as a whole.  &#8220;How much of each design is red?&#8221; is a good place to start.<\/p>\n<p>From there, ask the question in the photo, &#8220;We know that each of these designs is half red.  How can that be if there are a different number of red blocks in each design?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Relate the idea of the whole to: 1\/2 of one dollar and 1\/2 of one million dollars.  Which would they prefer?  Why?  A fraction only has meaning when it relates to its whole.<\/p>\n<p>Try this:  Pass out triangle isometric paper (type into search engine for free templates) and have students create designs that are 1\/2 red, 1\/4 red, 1\/6 green, etc. Share student work.  Students should see that even though each student drew a design that was 1\/2 red, etc., the areas colored red may be all different.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Getting students to understand fractions begins with an understanding of the &#8216;whole&#8217;. Take a look at the three designs in the photo. Begin with the question, &#8220;What do you notice?&#8221; Students will say obvious things like, &#8220;There is one hexagon and two trapezoids in the first design&#8221;, or &#8220;The center design is the largest.&#8221; Accept and encourage all these responses as they will help students build confidence. If no-one offers the idea that each design is half red, prompt them&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/www.familymathnight.com\/blog\/?p=3028\"> 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":[123,76,161,54,51,52,57],"tags":[101,102,69,118,88,67,21,22,157],"class_list":["post-3028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activities","category-family-math-night-2","category-fractions-kids-and-math-3-5","category-geometry-kids-and-math-3-5","category-kids-and-math-3-5","category-number-and-operations","category-problem-solving","tag-ccss","tag-common-core-state-standards","tag-family-math-night","tag-fractions","tag-hands-on-math","tag-k-5-math","tag-karyn-hodgens","tag-kidnexions","tag-problem-solving-3"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Fractions: Understanding the Whole - 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=3028\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fractions: Understanding the Whole - Karyn&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Getting students to understand fractions begins with an understanding of the &#8216;whole&#8217;. Take a look at the three designs in the photo. Begin with the question, &#8220;What do you notice?&#8221; Students will say obvious things like, &#8220;There is one hexagon and two trapezoids in the first design&#8221;, or &#8220;The center design is the largest.&#8221; Accept and encourage all these responses as they will help students build confidence. If no-one offers the idea that each design is half red, prompt them... 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