What’s a fraction?

Let’s start there. A fraction is composed of two numbers, one stacked upon the other with a dash separating them.

The bottom number is called the DENOMINATOR. It’s the number of equal parts a whole is divided into.

In  one half the denominator is 2, the whole is divided into 2 equal parts.

1
—
2

The top number is how many of those parts you have. In this case, you have 1.

Examples, PowerPoint and Videos Galore! 

Now you know if you follow this blog, you know I am a big believe in providing students with multiple examples and multiple contexts. I also think for most students you need to explain a concept more than once. After teaching many, many classes, I have come to believe that the answer to “Do I really need to teach this again?” is almost always, “Yes.”

DOWNLOAD THE PDF or PPT HERE:

How to understand what half is in Video

Just to make it even clearer, here’s a video answering the question, “What is half?” with examples:

End your class with style learning fractions by playing Fish Lake

FISH LAKE

Description: In Fish Lake, players practice with Fractions while learning math problem-solving strategies.

Intructions: MAC OS X,  Win 7, Win 8, Win 10.

NOTE: If you get a message about ‘unidentified developer’ here is how to fix it in 5 seconds or less.