Fractions
Printables
Fraction Insets DIY
The fraction insets are very important because of the impression they create with the fractions being within an inset, which clearly shows equivalancies and the division of the circle.
They can be easily made with craft foam board from Michael's or any other craft store. I'm linking foam board from Michael's so you can see for yourself: https://www.michaels.com/elmers-foam-board-white/10110205.html
Supply list for DIY:
- multipurpose glue
- exacto knife
- green and red paint (look for the acrylic paint that costs less than a dollar)
- foam board
- knobs (get creative here)
- fraction cut outs printout (below)
Cut out squares that measure 5.5 inches. You'll need 2 squares per inset for a total of 20 squares. With one square, you'll cut out the circles, and with the other, you'll glue to the bottom of the inset to prevent the circle pieces from falling out.
Measure out 3/4 inch from every edge and make a mark. This is to make sure the circle sits right in the center.
Use the fraction cut out circle to trace the shape onto the board. Use a heavy magnet or some sort of weight to hold the paper in place. You can also glue it on to the board, if you wish.
Use the knife to make slashes to indicate the separate parts of the circle. If you glued the paper on, just cut on the black lines. If not, then remove the paper, and cut out the pieces.
Glue another square to the bottom of that inset. You can paint the squares green... or leave them white. There is so significance to the green.
Get creative with the knobs. You can use fimo clay, shaped into little circles and glued on... you can use a dowel that is cut up into little pieces and glue them on.
Fraction Cut Outs
Fraction Insets 
Materials for Lessons
- Fraction insets
- One golden unit bead
- Blank strips of paper cut out as labels
- Whole circle cut outs
Introducing the Fraction Insets
This is the first lesson in the fraction sequence. You will first introduce the fractions and their names using the three period game.
To prepare: Have black labels ready in a little basket or container or scrap paper (tip: keep a little basket with scrap paper and scissors on the shelf for easy access for all sorts of lessons) . Have whole circle cut outs (at least 4 or so ready to go for the lesson) and place them under the work rug.
Bring out the first five fraction insets to your workspace. You'll bring out the rest IF you notice growing interest.
"Today we're going to find out what fractions are."
Hold up a golden unit bead. Ask, "what is this?"
Let your child reply.
"We start counting with one. Is there anything smaller than this bead that we know of?
No, there isn't... anything that we know of... yet!
But what if I have a slice of bread and I want to share it with my friend? I can cut it.
"But I can't cut this bead! It's too hard to cut! Let's try to squash it and squeeze it."
Put the bead in the palm of your hand, cover it with the other hand and place it under the rug. Pretend to squeeze the golden bead between your palms... "ahh! I squeezed it and it became flat and red!" Pull out one of the whole cut out red circles from under the rug.
"Now I can cut this because it's nice and flat and big enough for me to cut!"
Show them the circle in the inset. "This is our whole circle. But we can't cut this one, so we'll cut our paper one. I'm going to cut this into to pieces so we can share."
Cut the circle. Just don't cut it directly in half yet! Cut it randomly. Give your child the smaller piece. "Here you go, that one is for you!"
They will definitely notice that it's not cut equally and say something like, "Hey! That's not fair!"
And you can say, "Oh, you're right!! It isn't fair. I have to cut the fraction exactly in half to make it fair."
Take out another red circle and cut it exactly in half (fold in half and cut). "There we go. How's that?"
Take the fraction inset that is cut in half and place it on top of the one you cut.
"Well... what if we have three people? What can we do? We can cut it into three pieces!" Show them the fraction cut into thirds.
"Let's see if these are all the same size."
Take the pieces out and check if they are all the same size.
Continue on in the same way with the rest of the fractions or as many as the child is interested in (you can even bring out the rest of the fraction circles at this point if there is interest.)
Once they've had enough... pointing to the halves, "How many pieces are in here?" The child will say, "2."
Put a label that says 2 on the inset and say, "This is the family of 2."
Do the same with the rest. This is priming them for writing fractions. At this point, if they are still interested and want to keep going, move on to the next lesson below, otherwise come back to it another day.
Writing Fractions
Begin this lesson by doing a quick recap of the previous lesson.
In this lesson, you'll be showing your child how to write fractions and then you'll explore different quantities of fractions and label them.
What you'll need: All the fraction insets, your handy dandy basket of scrap paper and scissors, and 10 colored strips of paper (traditionally, black is used, but any color works).
"Today, we're going to play a fun game. We're going to give all these fractions a name! They need some names so we know who we're talking about."
Place the number labels on the fractions the same way you did in the previous lesson to indicate the fraction family name.
Take out the colored strip, and say, "This strip will help us write fractions..."
Point to the halves. "Do you remember how many pieces are in this fraction? That's right, there are two."
Take the "2" label and place it beneath the strip. Do the same thing with the rest of the fractions, asking how many there are in this fraction and then placing the label beneath to the line.
"We call this the denominator - the denominator tells us the family name of the fraction!"
"Now let's take a look at the family of twos..." Take out ONE half and place it above the line. Ask, "How many halves to we have here? That's right, we have only one half."
Write "1" on a little label (and yes, it's totally okay to cut and write during the lesson...) and place it right next to the fraction piece, and on top of the strip.
"So here we have ONE HALF... one from the family of halves is one half.
Do the same with several more fractions (or even all of them) to make the idea clear!
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The next step is to label each fraction piece with its own little ticket.
This can be fun and spontaneous and you don't have to go through all the fractions in one sitting. You can break it down into smaller more doable chunks and just work with a couple fraction insets at a time.
For this lesson, keep your basket of paper strips and scissors handy. You'll also need a pencil/pen.
Cut up little strips and just prepare several with a line for the fraction.
Making Quantities with Fractions
After introducing the concept of fractions, it's time to work with making quantities with the fractions and identifying them.
"Today, we'll be working with these fractions again." Have them all lined up at the top of your mat.
Take out 3/4 from the insets and place them on your mat.
Take a slip of paper and write a line in the middle. "This *pointing to the fraction* is from the family of fourths. So we will write down four in the denominator."
Write four at the bottom.
"Now how many pieces do I have here?"
Take out different quantities and write them down
Slips of paper
Once you've had some practice, you can now move on to operations with fractions while exploring equivalences.
Exploring Equivalences
Exploring the equivalent fractions 1/2 1/4 1/8... etc.
Introducing the Numerator and the Denominator
Basic Operations with Fractions + - x ÷
Addition With Same Denominator
Use can use the task cards provided in the printables section for this part of the lesson. Or you can make up your own problems with little strips of scrap paper as shown in the video!
"Today, we're going to do addition with the fractions!"
Look at the first problem on the addition task cards.
1/2 + 1/2 =
Take out 1/2 and another 1/2.
"What do we do when we add?"
By now, they know they that addition means to add up together.
Put the two halves together.
Write down the answer. 2/2.
"Oh but we know that two halves equals one, so we can just write down 1 instead."
Continue on with the rest of the problems on the task card or make up your own!
Subtraction With Same Denominator
For this lesson, you will need the task cards with operations or use strips of scrap paper to write your own equations as shown in the video.
3/4 - 2/4
Take out 3/4ths and say... "This is how much we have. We need to take away 2/4."
Take away 2/4, "Now we're only left with 1/4!"
And that's all. It's so simple! You can use the task cards to practice.
Multiplication of Fraction by Whole Number
Division of Fraction by Whole Number
Intro to Reducing Fractions
Use can use the task cards provided in the printables section for this part of the lesson. Or you can make up your own problems with little strips of scrap paper as shown in the video!
"Today, we're going to do addition with the fractions!"
Look at the first problem on the addition task cards.
1/2 + 1/2 =
Take out 1/2 and another 1/2.
"What do we do when we add?"
By now, they know they that addition means to add up together.
Put the two halves together.
Write down the answer. 2/2.
"Oh but we know that two halves equals one, so we can just write down 1 instead."
Continue on with the rest of the problems on the task card or make up your own!
Converting an Improper Fraction to a Proper Fraction
For this lesson, you will need the task cards with operations or use strips of scrap paper to write your own equations as shown in the video.
3/4 - 2/4
Take out 3/4ths and say... "This is how much we have. We need to take away 2/4."
Take away 2/4, "Now we're only left with 1/4!"
And that's all. It's so simple! You can use the task cards to practice.
Abstracting
Division of Fraction by Whole Number
Advanced Operations with Fractions
+ - x ÷
Addition and Subtraction with Different Denominators
Use can use the task cards provided in the printables section for this part of the lesson. Or you can make up your own problems with little strips of scrap paper as shown in the video!
"Today, we're going to do addition with the fractions!"
Look at the first problem on the addition task cards.
1/2 + 1/2 =
Take out 1/2 and another 1/2.
"What do we do when we add?"
By now, they know they that addition means to add up together.
Put the two halves together.
Write down the answer. 2/2.
"Oh but we know that two halves equals one, so we can just write down 1 instead."
Continue on with the rest of the problems on the task card or make up your own!
Finding the Lowest Common Denominator
For this lesson, you will need the task cards with operations or use strips of scrap paper to write your own equations as shown in the video.
3/4 - 2/4
Take out 3/4ths and say... "This is how much we have. We need to take away 2/4."
Take away 2/4, "Now we're only left with 1/4!"
And that's all. It's so simple! You can use the task cards to practice.
Abstraction and Going Beyond the Materials
Multiplication of a Whole Number by a Fraction
Use can use the task cards provided in the printables section for this part of the lesson. Or you can make up your own problems with little strips of scrap paper as shown in the video!
"Today, we're going to do addition with the fractions!"
Look at the first problem on the addition task cards.
1/2 + 1/2 =
Take out 1/2 and another 1/2.
"What do we do when we add?"
By now, they know they that addition means to add up together.
Put the two halves together.
Write down the answer. 2/2.
"Oh but we know that two halves equals one, so we can just write down 1 instead."
Continue on with the rest of the problems on the task card or make up your own!
Multiplication of a Fraction by a Fraction
For this lesson, you will need the task cards with operations or use strips of scrap paper to write your own equations as shown in the video.
3/4 - 2/4
Take out 3/4ths and say... "This is how much we have. We need to take away 2/4."
Take away 2/4, "Now we're only left with 1/4!"
And that's all. It's so simple! You can use the task cards to practice.
Abstraction and Going Beyond the Materials
Using
Division of a Whole Number by a Fraction
Use can use the task cards provided in the printables section for this part of the lesson. Or you can make up your own problems with little strips of scrap paper as shown in the video!
"Today, we're going to do addition with the fractions!"
Look at the first problem on the addition task cards.
1/2 + 1/2 =
Take out 1/2 and another 1/2.
"What do we do when we add?"
By now, they know they that addition means to add up together.
Put the two halves together.
Write down the answer. 2/2.
"Oh but we know that two halves equals one, so we can just write down 1 instead."
Continue on with the rest of the problems on the task card or make up your own!
Division of a Fraction by a Fraction
For this lesson, you will need the task cards with operations or use strips of scrap paper to write your own equations as shown in the video.
3/4 - 2/4
Take out 3/4ths and say... "This is how much we have. We need to take away 2/4."
Take away 2/4, "Now we're only left with 1/4!"
And that's all. It's so simple! You can use the task cards to practice.