Grades 3-5
22 activities—120 pages

To say that children have a difficult time understanding fraction concepts is an understatement. “Why is the product of the multiplications of fractions smaller than the wholes?” “Why is adding two unlike fractions more difficult than adding whole numbers?” “Why are there so many different names for ½?”

Fabulous Fractions comes to the rescue to help students make sense of fractional concepts. This collection of hands-on experiences seeks to engage students by using manipulatives to develop concepts of fractions and equivalence
For example, in the activity “Fraction Fringe,” students will make colorful paper fringes using paper of the same size but cut into notches of different proportions. One paper is notched in half, another is in fourths, another is in eighths, and so on. Overlapping these fringed papers, students will discover the relationships they have to one another. Numerators, denominators, equivalencies will all be explored with these handy, colorful tools and will provide “aha” moments for your students.

Fabulous Fractions also offers playful and intelligent practice as an integral part of the learning process. Several card games are included that challenge students to apply their understanding of matching or pairing fractions to show equivalence or sums of one.

Each learning experience in this book is designed to help build a concrete basis for thinking about fractions and operations. Many also explore applications to problem solving, geometry, and data display and analysis. Students will benefit as they develop a visual image of the actions that they are taking when working with fractions within an equation.