Fraction Fluency

Today in Grade 10 applied math we went back in time to around grade 5, when these students had the covid shut downs and online classes. This meant that their learning and understanding of fractions was limited.

We spent some time using strips of paper to fold equal parts, and explore what the fractions are.

The first few were easy, but there were challenges folding fifths and tenths. We drew and identified each unit fraction as we went.

We noticed that as the number of pieces got bigger the denominator got bigger, and the pieces got smaller.

We looked at vocabulary related to fractions and remembered words like numerator and denominator. We remembered that fractions are like division. We also learned a new word that the line between numerator and denominator is called a vinculum. A vinculum is also the little line used over a repeating decimal.

We looked at how we could make equivalent fractions. We noticed that even numbered denominators work nicely to make equivalents to one half.

we noticed that these fractions that are equivalent to one half have numerators that are half of the denominator, or denominators that are double the numerator. We even made some equivalent fractions that used really big numbers like 500/1000=1/2.