Happy Friday! I’m on the road in Montgomery County, MD this week working with a dynamic school full of incredible educators! We’ve been busy mapping the math curriculum and creating Tabor Rotation planning guides, but I didn’t want to miss Math Game Friday, so…
“If it’s not fun you’re doing it wrong.” -George Di Carlo
I believe this is true about so many mathematical concepts, especially ones like fractions. Maybe some of the reasons why fractions can be intimidating to students is because they don’t have a concrete understanding of fractions. But, maybe, it’s because they just never had any fun with fractions!
To share a little bit of fraction fun, I’ve posted a few games.
Several use fraction bars [purchase at http://www.fractionbars.com/Products/; free: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/tv/printables/scottforesman/Math_6_TTT_14.pdf]
What would our world be like without fractions? Our language would certainly change!
You could never tell a friend to break a cookie in “half” to share with you. You could only tell them to break it into two pieces. A glass containing water could never be described as “half full.” How could you describe this glass? There would be no such thing as “half past the hour” with timekeeping. You could never say you are “halfway” there when traveling. -http://ksnn.larc.nasa.gov/webtext.cfm?unit=fractions
Remember, five out of four people can’t do fractions. I wonder why?