Helping an 8 year old with fractions...

[Matildathebrave]

Not sure this is the right forum, but am looking for some ideas to help an 8 year old with fractions.

Also percentages.

Are there any good games out there or toys?

Have seen the fraction cubes but don't really know how I can make an interesting game of them?

Thanks

Teaching fractions can be a bit difficult. It is important to understand why they are so difficult to grasp.

Apart from time, fractions are the only other part of maths that does not count in 1's, 10's 100's etc. To make a 'whole' from fractions it could take 6 parts if it is sixths, 8 parts if it is eighths etc. This is the bit that needs careful explaining.

The best way to do this is to start with groups of objects, not whole objects like pizza's. Just give a pile of objects and ask them to work out 1/6 etc, 1/8th etc.

Then google fraction games, there are some good printable ones out there, can't give links off the top of my head, but i have found them in the past.

To get children to understand fraction and percentage links they must first learn how to turn a fraction to a decimal. Basically take the top ( numerator ) and divide by the bottom ( denominator ) to get the decimal using a calculator. Then the link between decimal and percentage is easy to see. e.g

3/4 - 3 divide by 4 = 0.75 75%

Just a note, i teach year 6 and we have only just covered fractions to decimals and decimals to percentage. If your child is ready for it go ahead and teach them. But in Year 4 they are required to recognise fractions of a whole and fractions of groups of numbers.

PM me if i can help in any other way!

God i have just read that back and realised how 'teachery' i sound. So sorry, i hope it isn't too jargony either. I really want to be helpful!

Can you- um -remind me how to multiply fractions??

My DD is in year four and I have recently done lots of fraction, decimal and percentage work with her prior to her taking an entrance exam to move to a prep school for year five. (Too much work as it turned out, the exam was "pips" and she didn't need to know all the stuff we had covered.)

We had a card game called fraction action which had for example cards for 3/4, 6/8 75%, 0.75 and 3/4 or 6/8 shaded shapes. The cards covered various combinations down to 1/10s. We used the cards either to play snap or spread them out and turned over two cards looking for an equal value pair.

This was a very gentle way to do some basics on the topic and DD would actively request to play, despite not generally being a fan of anything numerical.

Also found DD really stuggled at first with abstracts and we had to do loads of concrete examples along the lines of if I had 27 sweets and I wanted to share them out fairly between you and DS1 and DS2 how many would you get each?

If we hadn't first made mammoth efforts to ensure she was secure in knowing all times tables up to 12 this would have been even more painful. She is the only child in her y4/5 class who now knows her tables (one of the reasons for the move...) If your child has missed out on covering times tables thoroughly you might also need to reinforce these first.

Do an internet search for fraction games, there are hundreds on line, but also lots of games that can be played at home.

I usually start off with the pizza method, 1/2 1/4 1/3 etc. Have a circle that you fold/cut into the various shapes and share out. You can then develop this as they get more confident.

You can do the same with decimals. A whole pizza is 100, half is 50% etc.

my DS aged 7 year 2 absolutely loves fractions!

I agree, the best way to explain is to say that a 'whole' number can be made by splitting in different parts.

we started by getting him to colour different combinations like 1/2, 3/4,7/8 etc as well as remind them that the parts have to be equal size

Thank you, that's really helpful.

He is in year 3 so just starting out with fractions. Will definately Google, didn't think of that.

Thanks again

Also he is in year 3 and just starting times tables, he knows his 2's, 3's, 5's, 10's and 11's. So really need to get practicing on these too!

Thanks again!

Remember that 1/4 is one part in four or one out of four. If they don't get that idea firmly in their heads when doing pizza style fraction work it can then be hard to relate to a group of objects and also to do 3/4 or any fraction where the numerator ( top number ) is more than one. And the fractions cubes can gelp make that jump. Fractions are one of those areas that seem to be so straightforward when explaining them but mysteriously difficult to grasp for some children. I would try using real food to explain! Always helps focus the mind when there's a real cake or pizza in front of you!!

This is a helpful book for parents.

Not played it myself but 'fraction action lotto' looks good - seems to help them learn equivalence eg how 3/4 = 75% = 0.75

It's on amazon.

Or you can make your own version with pieces of card!

Btw to multiply fractions: multiply the tops and then the bottoms

So 3/4 x 1/2
= (3x1)/(4x2)
= 3/8

Remember here the x actually means OF - 3/4 of a half is 3/8.

To illustrate this you could get 8 objects or cut a pizza into 8. So half of that is 4, and 3/4 OF that is 3.

Sorry didn't explain that well

Do ask if there's anything else though!

(last post was for erebus)

The problem with multiplying fractions and why lots of adults can't remember how is that most of us were taught in an abstract way. I think to retain it it's helpful to think of 1/4 x 1/2 as 1/4 of a half a quarter, maybe draw it out so you can then see why it comes out as 1/8. Then when you follow freudian's way of doing it you'll really understand why. The good thing about more modern maths teaching is that with best practice, children really understand why they're doing things because they've moved from the concrete examples to the abstract.

Going off on a tangent here but this is why I really feel multisensory teaching is so important especially in maths - lots of children (and adults) really need something concrete to handle rather than just looking at numbers on a board.

Hear hear, Freudian. Couldn't agree more. And too often the concrete experience is not seen as the important stuff.

Hello,

there are loads of really great fraction, decimal and timestables resources on Learning Supplies website I especially like the fraction fan which shows the fraction in numbers and pictorally on 1 side, and the corresponding decimal on the reverse.

Also google 'Decimal Dog' which I got from e-bay which is a plastic hot dog which teaches fractions and decimals - think this is a bit hard to get in the UK but worth looking out for

Hope this helps!!

We just brought the Usbourne books Maths dictionary, my DS7 picked it up at a book fair started reading it understood it and said "oh thats what my teacher was going on about". It is now his favourite bedtime reading book.

It explains things in a simple but effective manner and gives you an idea of how to explain things to them to

Try Fraction Action Lotto game on Amazon.