Fraction Action Fun with Friends!

This week my Smarties will be finishing up a unit on Multiplying and Dividing Fractions. 


 The changes in the Common Core for me in Math this year really have me scrambling.  I am required to teach Division of Fractions to my sixies.  To do this, of course I have to teach Multiplying Fractions.  All well and good... We worked our way through various visual representations last week and learned a quick song to remember the steps to division:  My song is to CELEBRATION if anyone is looking for a way to remember it.. leave a comment at the end of the post and I'll blog about it.

What I'm having trouble with is that I don't have any Addition or Subtraction of fractions this year.  I SHOULD be doing the happy happy happy dance.  This is ALWAYs a difficult topic.  But I"m worried that because I am not required to teach it, and frankly don't have a LOAD of time to do so, that these sixies will be lacking in the fraction understanding department.
That being said, I made a little FRACTION ACTION with FRIENDS review game to help practice these skills next week before we leave for WInter Break.  I figured I could get a day or two in or review and teach some basics after I assess Multiplication and Division this week.
I'm using my WACKY WORDIES HOLIDAY PACK 



and also this new FRACTION ACTION with FRIENDS game that I just posted. 



You can check them out in my TpT store.

Have a great week everyone!


5 comments

  1. I always struggled to find a practical application where you would actually divide fractions. Everything I came up with was actually multiplying the fractions. Like if you had 5/8 of a cake left and you wanted to divide it in half, you are actually multiplying by 1/2. Every other teacher at my school that I have asked can't come up with a situation either. Since you teach it, do you have a real-life example?

    Diane
    Fifth in the Middle

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    Replies
    1. Usually you teach the kids about using the inverse operation (Multiplication), because technically you would need to find a common denominator to actually divide a fraction. Mutliplying is so much easier.
      When I teach this I start with a visual model of using a whole number and I tell a baking story. For example, my Dad bakes 9 loves of bread and divides them into thirds. How many people can he feed if everyone gets an equal amount...etc.
      Most of the word problems for my sixies have to do with cutting boards and ribbon, so they start to look for the word clues about division.
      I hope that helps!
      Michele

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    2. Yes, that makes sense. Putting in a whole number helps. I could never come up with a scenario where you would divide 3/4 by 3/8 and get 2.

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    3. Could you say something like you have 3/4 of a yard of ribbon. It needs to be cut into 3/8 inch pieces. How many pieces will I have? Then they could create a visual representation using a ruler if you had to..3/4 is really 6/8 divided by 3/8 would give you 2/1. Not sure if that helps or not.

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