Lesson 2 : How to teach Fractions
First as a review, to recall information on what we learned so far, I created a simple fraction book using the circle fraction I had on hand.
We discussed how we use fractions daily. Using quarters and a dollar, I showed him each quarter is 1/4. We also looked at rulers to find fractions, measuring cups, and also later in the day while driving, I pointed out fractions on road signs.
This time, I demonstrated fractions by using magnetic number tiles . We went over each of the fractions using fraction terms like whole, halves, thirds, etc.
The next question I asked him was: how many fourths make up a whole? He was able to use the fourths tiles and tell me the answer. How many eights make up a whole?
Then we learned about comparing fractions. I’d ask him, which one is greater, 1/3 or ¼? Having the fraction tiles in front of him, he was able to discover which fraction was greater or less than. Is 1/8 or 1/5 bigger? How about 1/10 and 1/12?
We then moved onto figuring out equivalent fractions.
I removed all the tiles except for the 1 whole tile. “How many different ways can you make a whole?” I placed a half under the whole and demonstrated how he could add 2/4 to the ½ to equal 1. ” 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/4 = 1″ ( I wrote this down in his math notebook as I said it aloud). He then went on to figuring out different ways to make 1 whole. Each time he figured out a new way, I encouraged him to write his fraction problem in his notebook with my assistance. He also wanted to come up with ways to make halves and worked with circle fraction as well.
Then we moved onto identifying the different parts of a fraction. “E, a fraction has parts: a numerator, denominator and a fraction bar. A fraction represents a part of a whole. The numerator is the top part of the fraction which tells us how many parts of the whole are there and denominator tells us how many equal parts an item is divided into.” We plan on working on this lesson couple times this week until he masters the concept.
By using the fraction tiles, the lessons were interactive and tactile making learning about fractions fun and understandable.
