Objective
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to understand and work with fractions.
Materials and Prep
- Pencil
- Plain paper
No prior knowledge is required for this lesson. Just come with an open mind and a willingness to learn!
Activities
- Activity 1: Fraction Pizza - Draw a circle on a piece of paper and divide it into equal parts. Color in a certain number of parts to represent the numerator and leave the remaining parts blank. Write the fraction below the circle. Repeat with different fractions.
- Activity 2: Fraction War - Take a deck of playing cards and remove the face cards. Split the deck evenly between you and the student. Each player turns over two cards and creates a fraction by using the first card as the numerator and the second card as the denominator. The player with the larger fraction wins the round.
- Activity 3: Fraction Scavenger Hunt - Look around your house for objects that can be divided into fractions. For example, find a pizza and determine what fraction of the pizza is left.
Talking Points
- What is a fraction? "A fraction represents a part of a whole. It is made up of a numerator and a denominator. The numerator tells us how many parts we have, and the denominator tells us how many equal parts make up the whole."
- Equivalent fractions: "Fractions that represent the same amount are called equivalent fractions. For example, 1/2 and 2/4 are equivalent because they both represent half of a whole."
- Adding and subtracting fractions: "To add or subtract fractions, we need to have a common denominator. This means the bottom numbers (denominators) of the fractions need to be the same. Once we have a common denominator, we can add or subtract the numerators and keep the denominator the same."
- Multiplying fractions: "To multiply fractions, we simply multiply the numerators together and the denominators together. The resulting fraction represents the product of the two fractions."
- Dividing fractions: "To divide fractions, we multiply the first fraction by the reciprocal of the second fraction. The reciprocal is found by swapping the numerator and denominator of the second fraction. The resulting fraction represents the quotient of the two fractions."