It's important to me to get fractions in my kids brains as painlessly as possible. Pizza and pies are, for me, the easiest way to teach fractions. I really don't want to feed my kids these things all the time though. It's just not healthy. I came up with a solution that is cheap, calorie free, and fun.
Why not make your own pizza? You will need, white, red, brown, and green construction paper (or whatever colors are typically on your pizza.) You'll also need scissors and glue. I ran out of red construction paper so I used red fabric paint.
On with the lesson:
We cut our pizza in to 8 pieces.
8 pieces out of 8 pieces = 8/8 or one whole pizza.
We gave our friend one piece 8-1=7. How much pizza is left? 7 pieces out of the 8 that was there at first. 7/8 would be our fraction.
We decided to give another piece of that pizza away. That makes 2 pieces all together that we've given away. 8-2=6 or 6 out of 8 pieces are left or 6/8 this reduces down and 2 goes in to 6 and 8 3/ 4 is our new reduced fraction.
We gave another piece away that makes 3 pieces we've given away. 8-3=5 or 5 pieces out of 8 or 5/8 of the pizza is left.
We gave yet another piece away. 8-4=4 Which means 4 pieces out of 8 are left or 4/8 is left this is of course divisible by 4. Four goes in to 4 1 time and 4 goes in to 8 2 times. Therefore, 4/8 is equal to 1/2. One half of the pizza has been eaten and one half is left. Now the cool thing is that one half also means there is only 50% of that pizza left.
The smallest child is hungry too so again a slice of that pizza is taken away 8-5=3 There is 3 out of 8 pieces of that pizza left or 3/8.
The middle child is hungry as well so she takes a slice of that pizza. There are 2 slices left six of those pizza slices went in someone's tummy. 2 out of 8 or 2/8 which can get smaller if we just divide by 2. 2 goes in to itself 1 time and two goes in to 8 4 times. 1/4 of that pizza is left which means the same as 2/8.
The oldest child just grabs a slice. How rude! He didn't even ask! Still the same this too, is a fraction. There is 1 piece of that pizza left. 7/8 have been eaten and 1/8 is left. I wonder who will get the last piece.
With all the children fed mommy decided she would eat as well. 8/8 of that pizza is gone or like any fraction that has itself as the numerator or denominator 1 whole. One whole pizza is gone. It's sad but true one whole pizza is gone and there is only you.
I found your site through the Living Math forum. I really like this actIvity, I'd love to link to it from my blog in the future if that's ok. I've been cutting my preschooler's sandwiches into quarters and his pancakes into eighths for a while now - talking about fractions in a basic way makes him feel grown up like his siblings! I'm sure he and his siblings will have fun with your pizza activity!
ReplyDeleteFeel free to link to it. My own kids loved it. I do the food fractions too. Now they are beginning to divide their food on their own. :)
ReplyDeleteAww, haha, how cute! :)
ReplyDelete-Lola (blogcatalog member)