Rose is Rose by Don Wimmer and Pat Brady for October 06, 2015
October 05, 2015
October 07, 2015
Transcript:
Pasquale: Daddy, will you help me with this? Jimbo: Sure, what do you need helps with, Pasquale? Pasquale: It's a fractions work-sheet!
More From Rose is Rose
Trivial.
http://www.numberempire.com/fractionscalculator.php
1/4+3/5 = 17/20
No thought required.
Understanding fractions is a bit more work. It takes a dozen logical steps to get from four quarters in a dollar to subtracting and dividing fractions. I find that it helps both children and mathophobic parents to work in slices of pizza, or pictures of pizza slices on paper or on a computer.
For the example above, cut one pizza in four, and a second in five, and take one slice from pizza 1 and three from pizza 2. Cut the quarter pizza in five, getting twentieths, and cut the fifths of pizza in four each, getting twentieths, and count the twentieths. Of course, you don’t start children there. You have to begin with much simpler cases, and work up to it.
Cuisenaire rods work, too. Muffin pans and dried beans. No, M&Ms. This needs to be fun. Measuring cups. Lego blocks. Squares on a checkerboard. Apples and oranges. Say, you know those chocolate oranges you usually see around Christmas time, that come apart in slices? Mmmm. Tasty fractions.