How can i make fraction reading and writing simple?

One deals with fraction on day to day basis, whether it is one’s percentage contribution to the target at the workplace or the psychological pricing of $99.99 at some retail stores. Percentage and decimals are fractions. Fraction occupies a central role in our day to day life. Take for instance when you are preparing monthly budget for household items, you end up allocating portion of the budget to various items and hence distribute the given amount on the items to be purchased. This form of distributing the budget on the various items can be expressed in the fractional form. How many times we have come across traveling conversation’s which say I am half way through the travel. This half way through is nothing but fraction. As fractions assume such an important part of our life, it becomes imperative to associate the criticalness when teaching these concepts in the classroom.

A solid framework of fractions at an early stage will enable the kids understand and comprehend various aspects of math topics. It is thus important to design activities which are combination of both conceptual and skill learning.

Explaining fractions to the primary grade

Ideally when the fractions are being introduced to the children, there should be an emphasis on fraction as an entity just like a number and this entity as part of the bigger entity. Like number 8 is just a number but fraction 1/8 is a part of the whole. This whole is nothing but the total number of parts. Further a whole is the representative of the object in question. In order to help them develop a hang of what a whole in the context of fraction means, they should first be explained what the top part of the fraction means and what the bottom part of the fraction means.

An easy way to explain this concept should be showing them pizza and asking them to divide the pizza in say 4 pieces. After the division asking them what does this 4 pizza if put together represents? To make it simple put ¼ adjacent to the 4 parts of the pizza. This will force them to look for the similarities in the two different form of presentation and they thus will understand that the 4 parts of the pizza is equivalent to the bottom of the fraction. They further will explore and be able to define the bottom “as total number of parts”. Similarly to explain the top part of the fraction, if 1 part of the pizza is removed from the 4 parts of the pizza, then the part removed, taken out, left or consumed represents the top part. They thus will be able to define the top “as number of parts eaten, removed, taken out or left”.

A series of practice can be given with activity where in certain parts are taken out or are left over. The idea is not to condition them but help them explore. They should thus understand that top part is “the number of parts”. The number of part is indicative of the parts removed or parts remaining. Also the bottom part is the “total number of parts”, which is needed to get the original shape, object or the figure.

Once the tone is set, the next stage should be asking them to divide the day to day eatery say apple into many different parts so that a child is able to feed his or her group of friends. Initially they should be given symmetrical shapes and as they grow in terms of thinking they can be exposed to non symmetrical shapes.

The activity described above should help in developing following understanding in the child.

• Enable child to treat fraction as an entity just like any other number.
• Understand the components of the fraction
• Can define fractions in terms of the component.
• Can identify and understand that fractions are derived from the whole

Through these kind and type of activities we should help a child write and read fractions. The moment they become proficient in reading and writing fraction. They can be taken to next level where in they try to compare, order and explore related fractional concepts. At inhomeacademy we have adopted this approach to introduce a child to fraction. We want them develop enough affinity for fraction before they actually go down to write fractions. We would like to hear from you about this approach of explaining the fractions. This form of enablement will help them grasp the above objectives.What do you think about the above mentioned activities ?