Those who use Miquon: help me out

[Walking-Iris]

My ds was working through some of the fraction pages this morning. He was doing really well until we got to page H-38 in the blue book.

 

He caught on to the first three exercises right away but the rest of the page really stumped him. And the Annotations has failed me miserably in teaching this page (I'm NOT a fan of Miquons teacher materials)

 

I don't want to just tell him the answer but I'm having a tough time figuring out how to teach this page in a way that is making any sense to him so that he can get to the conclusion on his own.

 

This is not the first time my ds has seen fractions btw and a lot of these pages were basically review.

 

Can those of you who use Miquon give me some tips in how to present the last 4 exercises on that page?

[mom2boys030507]

I have my boys take the number of wholes and divided each whole into thirds. Then they take one third for each whole. Then show them how it is written.

 

I would most likely take a number that is not done on this page to show my boys. So I would do 7 x 1/3 I would have them take 3 whites, red ect. rods for each of the 7 whole number - it would work the best if each whole is a different color rod. Then they take one of each color rod. This is the visual that you end up with 7/3. Then I would show my boys how this is written. If they are able then they can talk me through the next problem on the sheet.

 

HTH

[KristenR]

:bigear:

 

I haven't gotten there yet so I'd love to hear what others have done.

[Kuovonne]

These are tough because the answers are not whole numbers. The clue is in the pictures.

 

In the first three pictures it is easy to see how many whole "pies" you have from the pictures, and each pie is made of three 1/3's.

 

In the fourth problem, there are two 1/3's, so the answer is two thirds.

 

In the fifth problem there are five 1/3's. Three of them are arranged in a pie, so that's 1. The other two 1/3's make 2/3.

 

In the sixth problem, there are 4 1/3's in the picture. I'd ask the child how many 1/3's it takes to make a whole. When he answers 3, I'd have him circle three of the wedges. Then he'd see that he has one whole and one 1/3.

 

In the seventh problem, there are 14 1/3's. I'd remind him how many 1/3's it takes to make a whole. Notice how the wedges are arranged with three in a column? I'd have him circle columns of three 1/3's to see how many wholes there are. Then he could count that there are four wholes, and two 1/3/s left over. So the answer is 4 2/3.

 

p.s. I love how Miquon teaches fractions.

[Walking-Iris]

These are tough because the answers are not whole numbers. The clue is in the pictures.

 

In the first three pictures it is easy to see how many whole "pies" you have from the pictures, and each pie is made of three 1/3's.

 

In the fourth problem, there are two 1/3's, so the answer is two thirds.

 

In the fifth problem there are five 1/3's. Three of them are arranged in a pie, so that's 1. The other two 1/3's make 2/3.

 

In the sixth problem, there are 4 1/3's in the picture. I'd ask the child how many 1/3's it takes to make a whole. When he answers 3, I'd have him circle three of the wedges. Then he'd see that he has one whole and one 1/3.

 

In the seventh problem, there are 14 1/3's. I'd remind him how many 1/3's it takes to make a whole. Notice how the wedges are arranged with three in a column? I'd have him circle columns of three 1/3's to see how many wholes there are. Then he could count that there are four wholes, and two 1/3/s left over. So the answer is 4 2/3.

 

p.s. I love how Miquon teaches fractions.

 

Thank you. Yep we got this far and he started to understand that but then making the connection between the visual and the answer to 5x 1/3 = for instance was tripping him up. I don't think he's quite at a point where talking about cross multiplying and improper fractions are going to go over too well either. He can easily visualize 8x 1/2= with no problem and 9 x 1/3=

 

I'm going to put this away to "simmer" for a while and then go back to it when he gets some more math experience under his belt. Thank you guys.

[AEC]

two methods I've used to explain this....

 

1) draw seven things that can be divided up (say, pies or rectangles). Divide them each into thirds. Shade one 1/3 in each picture and start counting shaded thirds.

 

2) recall that all arithmetic we do on 'things' gives us an answer as some number of the same kind of 'thing'.

 

What's 2 frogs plus 6 frogs? 8 frogs. Not 8 ducks, but 8 frogs.

If I have 1 cupcake and you have 7 times as many, how many do you have? You have 7 cupcakes. Not 7 cars or 7 bananas, but 7 cupcakes.

 

The same with 'thirds'.

 

1/3 * 7 is 7 1/3rds...which we write as 7/3.

 

 

-andy

[Walking-Iris]

two methods I've used to explain this....

 

1) draw seven things that can be divided up (say, pies or rectangles). Divide them each into thirds. Shade one 1/3 in each picture and start counting shaded thirds.

 

2) recall that all arithmetic we do on 'things' gives us an answer as some number of the same kind of 'thing'.

 

What's 2 frogs plus 6 frogs? 8 frogs. Not 8 ducks, but 8 frogs.

If I have 1 cupcake and you have 7 times as many, how many do you have? You have 7 cupcakes. Not 7 cars or 7 bananas, but 7 cupcakes.

 

The same with 'thirds'.

 

1/3 * 7 is 7 1/3rds...which we write as 7/3.

 

 

-andy

 

thanks---I think I can explain it to him that way. We put the fractions away for today and worked on something else, but I'm thinking I'll ease into it again Monday. He was doing really well until he got tripped up on that. :)