EASY AS PIE: 8 WAYS TO TACKLE FRACTIONS Teaching fractions to your fourth-grader is not impossible. The key to understanding fractions, like other math operations, is practice. “Parents’ involvement with learning math is just as important as their involvement with learning to read,” says Richard E. Bavaria, Ph.D., vice president of education for Sylvan Learning Center. “You frequently hear people making light that they are not good at math. The message we are giving to our children is that we don’t need to know math to be an adult.” Bavaria says parents need to motivate and encourage their children when it comes to practicing math skills. And most important, be a good role model. “When you are at a restaurant, instead of passing off the bill to someone else, figure out the tip and do it out loud,” he says. “Whether it is watching sports, grocery shopping, cooking, measuring wood or calculating mileage, show children that math is an important part of daily life.” Here are eight ways you can help your child practice fractions while having fun. Invent hands-on activities for your child. Ask your child to draw shapes and help her color various fractions of the shapes. Perhaps arrange a treasure hunt for fractions (written on index cards) hidden around the house. Make fraction models and fraction charts. Use visual aids to help your child see that the same fraction can be represented in different ways. This is one of the hardest concepts to understand. Drawing charts to compare fractions and their sizes will help your child. Demonstrate how fractions are useful in the real world. Bake a cake with your child and point out the fractions of flour, milk and sugar needed. Children like to help out in the kitchen. This is a fun and practical way to get your child interested in fractions. Encourage memorization. Once a child remembers basic fractions such as ½ and ¼, solving fraction problems becomes easier. Help your child memorize a few major fractions by using flash cards and giving mini quizzes. Use objects when explaining problems. If a question talks about candy being distributed in certain fractions, use a bag to provide a real-life example for your child. Make up fraction problems throughout the day. If your child helps set the table, ask what fraction of glasses were used from a set of 20. Allow your child to take breaks. If your child becomes frustrated and cannot understand how to multiply fractions, let her take a break and give her the chance to walk away from the question and come back once she is less stressed. Make up fraction games. There are several games you can play with your children involving fractions. For example, ask your child to find the fraction of items in a room which contain the color blue. This will make your child less scared of fractions and help him feel comfortable using fractions to express ratios. By Payal Uttam 4-8 Worksheet 1. The fish tank is a rectangle measuring 20 inches by 45 inches. Marina put sand in 2/3 of the fish tank. One half of the sand contains pebbles. How many square feet of the tank has pebbles? 2. If you roll two cubes numbered 5-10, what is the probability that the sum of the numbers rolled will be 10? 3. Elizabeth put 1/10 of her earnings in her piggy bank. If Elizabeth has $5.00 dollars in her piggy bank, how much did Elizabeth earn? 4. A red piece of string is 2 3/10 cm long and a blue piece of string is 2 1/4 cm long. Which one is longer? 5. 4 3/15 + 9 8/15 + 8 11/15 6. In this sequence 2/7, 5/7, 1 1/7, 1 4/7, 2, 2 3/7, what are the next two numbers in the sequence? 7. 1/3 x 3/5 and write in the lowest terms. 8. A number is divided by 4 and the quotient multiplied by 1/5. The product is then squared and 6 is added. The final answer is 10. What is the original number? 9. 2 3/4 X 1/4 10. 1/3 - 1/5 Answers 1) 300 square feet 2) 1/36 3) $50 4) The red string 5) 22 7/15 6) 2 6/7 and 3 2/7 7) 1/5 8) 40 9) 11/16 10) 2/15