Studying fractions, part 2

As I mentioned in this post, we are working our way through fractions, in a hands-on method – primarily using our Alison’s Montessori fraction circles.

Third presentation:  naming parts of a whole precisely

For this presentation, I took out two 1/2 pieces, and laid them in a circle.  Then I pointed out that we have 2 pieces which makes a whole, so each piece is called one-half.  I then separated the pieces, and slowly pulled each one into the center of the mat.  As I brought the first piece in, I said, “One-half.”  I brought the second piece so that it completed the circle, pointed to each piece, and said, “One-half. Two-halves.”

I then removed three 1/3 pieces from the box and laid them in a circle.  I pointed out that there were 3 pieces and each piece is individually called 1/3 because there are 3 pieces.  Then I slightly pulled the pieces out so that they were no longer a circle.  I then moved one 1/3 piece back to the center and said 1/3.  I moved the second piece to the center.  I then pointed to the first piece and said one-third and then pointed to the second and said two-thirds. I repeated this process to add in the last one-third, and then slowly pointed from one to the other stating, “One-third. Two-thirds. Three-thirds.”

We repeated this same process for as many circles as he choose to create.

Fourth presentation:  correctly labeling the parts of whole

As Aikman was creating circles one day and tracing them, I asked him if he would like to learn how to write some of these fractions.  He agreed.  I asked him to trace each circle, piece by piece.  After he finished each piece, I showed him how to write each fraction, and then asked him to label each piece as he wrote it.

This is his final work, using the halves, thirds, fourths, sixths, and beginning of the sevenths, before he lost interest in doing this work.

On a side note, I know a lot of people are intimidated by teaching math to kids, and was wondering if you’ve taught fractions to your kids?  Is this an intimidating topic for you to teach?  I wanna know, and definitely will post more information about it, if others are interested in reading about how to teach fractions to kids!

I’m linking up to Montessori Monday and Math Monday.