How much should a 2nd grader (end of 2nd, rising 3rd) know about fractions?

[ChristusG]

Cause I'm about to pull my hair out. :banghead:

 

We're doing Abeka 3 and there's multiplication and division, of course. It touches on fractions as well. I also started a side unit of Math Mammoth so that DD's foundation in multiplication can be strong. In the Math Mammoth multiplication there's quite a bit of fractions at the beginning.

 

I have explained and explained....and she's just not getting it. How much should I try to get her to understand at this age. I admit, I'm 31 years old and hate fractions with a passion LOL.

[AnnaM]

Our curriculum (Mix of BJU and TT) only just touch on fractions. It covers 1/2 and 1/3 and that is pretty much it.

[5LittleMonkeys]

I'm going to give you a completely unhelpful answer.

 

It depends on what curriculum you use.:D

 

If you use MUS they wouldn't learn it until 5th I think.

 

I don't think there is any one correct "should" answer in homeschooling. My preference is that a second grader going into 3rd should know that a whole (either single item or a group) can be broken into parts, those parts can be discussed as fractions, the denominator tells how many parts the whole is divided into and the numerator tells the specific parts you are doing something with or talking about. I think they should know what 1/4, 2/4, and 3/4 is and their relation to each other and to a whole. They should just be exploring breaking a whole into 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, and so on.

[Incognito]

Have you done fractions with food? I'm not to that age yet, so I don't know what you're planning to do with the fractions, but understanding what they are is made quite clear when you will give her 1/2 a cookie or 1/8 of a cookie. :)

[crazyforlatin]

I was very worried about teaching fractions, but who knew that just having Dd play with those foam fractional tiles, circles and rectangles as well as C-rods got us past those lessons in MM 3 and 4 so quickly? Have you seen Rosie's videos yet? Fractions may be difficult to understand without actually using manipulatives or food.

[Thia]

Take some clear plastic (page protector, laminating page...) and draw some circles on it, the same size. Then you can split them up in the various fractions. You can then stack them to show which ones are bigger/smaller etc.

[Beth in SW WA]

I suggest you start here at Rosie's website: Education Unboxed. She's a mom here on the forum.

 

My dd7, who is finishing up 2nd with fractions, loves these videos. I also watched this video on C-rods with her this weekend. She wanted to do the problems that the first graders in the video were doing. She loved it.

 

But start w/ Rosie's videos. You can't go wrong. :)

[besroma]

After you try these suggestions, if DD still is not getting it, take a break from fractions.

 

When DS wasn't getting it and I was getting frustrated, we took a break from fractions for about two months. He went from not seeing things with simple fractions to being able to answer fairly complex word problems involving fractions! He just wasn't ready developmentally.

 

Do you have any of the Miquon books? I really like the way they introduce fractions.

[cloudswinger]

We do RS, and somewhere we've covered 1/2, 1/4 and that 2/4 is the same as 1/2 and 4/4 is the same as 1.

 

Although I think she already understood the concept from playing games, and not necessarily the RS games. And sharing food. Kids always want to know how to divide food up equally! 4 or 8 m&ms divide up easily into 1/2 and 1/4

Edited May 30, 2012 by cloudswinger

[courtney.byrum]

I'm not remembering what DD covered in math this year (k12 2nd grade math) but she knows the basics of fractions but using them with any operations yet. She does know how to add but that's from her brother teaching her.

 

They played this game a lot over the last 2 years and I think it helped solidify basic fractions for her:

http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-LER5053-Pastas-Fraction/dp/B00004TDLF/ref=sr_1_2?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1338355396&sr=1-2

 

eta: we have this one as well and it goes into much more - I think it does twelfths if not more

http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Pizza-Fraction-Game/dp/B00009XNTF/ref=cm_cr_pr_sims_t

Edited May 30, 2012 by CourtneyB

[coffeefreak]

It's the #1 reason I quit using A Beka for math and do not recommend it to other moms. Next year (in the 4th grade book), it will get worse. MUCH WORSE. They do fractions that I didn't do until my 6th grade year. My MIL who was a 3rd and 4th grade teacher in PS her whole career, "subbed" for me that year, and told me that curriculum was insane.

 

I don't know if that helps, but you could also go look at your state standards and benchmarks for 3rd grade and see what it says.

 

Blessings!

Dorinda

[Thia]

I think it varies from state to state b/c I was talking to an elementary math teacher and I told her what we were doing (Abeka) and she said that is what they are doing at that level in NY anyways.

[Farrar]

Agreed that it depends on the curriculum and there are different appropriate times to approach various aspects of fractions.

 

Also agreed that Miquon introduces fractions really well and some of the activities for the C-rods with fractions are really cool.

 

And agreed that if she doesn't get it, I'd move on for now...

 

But what is she not getting? Are you doing operations with fractions and she's not getting that? Are you doing equivalent fractions? Are you doing greater than less than? My kids can do some of those things, but not with great fluency yet. The only thing, if it was my kids (who are also end of second graders) that I might be concerned if they didn't understand would be visualizing really basic fractions. Like, if they couldn't look at a picture of a circle cut in half or quarters and tell me what fraction it was. Or if they couldn't understand how to divide a group of a small number in half.

[GTJo1996]

I recently asked the same question. My friend is a veteran 2nd grade teacher where I live in Georgia. In our PS here, the 2nd graders need to know than 1/2 = 3/6. Decimals are not introduced in 2nd grade. They touch on percentage but simply to introduce the concept.

 

Having said that, I am SURE this is b/c fractions appear in the standardized test they are trying to teach for. I personally do not recall getting into fractions until about the 4th grade, after we had mastered multiplication/division in 3rd. I don't understand how we are supposed to teach 1/2 = 3/6 when a kid hasn't yet mastered 2x3=6.

 

We have used Horizons 2nd & 3rd grade this year and Horizons touches on it but does NOT get to common denominators by the end of the 2nd gr book. They did have a few problems where the kiddos should put the fractions in order of lowest to highest value, but they were super simple like 1/3, 1/5, 1/7, 1/10. So if they understood the larger the denominator, the smaller the piece of pie, then they could easily complete this.

[Momling]

I'm pretty sure my daughter, who finished SM2b a few months ago and is now doing BA3a only knows about basic fractions, but not how to work with them.

 

I do remember, though, that my older daughter at this age had the worst time with the "What is 3/4 of 20" type of problems. I tried it in 2nd grade - disaster. I tried it in 3rd grade - still no luck. Finally, at the beginning of 4th grade, it just clicked and it was so easy to teach. She understood immediately and it was no big deal. I've found the same thing has been true about a couple of other topics (elapsed time, rate). I've come to the conclusion that it's all developmental. Math is much easier if we do our best on a difficult topic, but if it doesn't make sense the first time around, just return to the topic later on.

[RootAnn]

Abeka 3 moves really fast (until the last 50 lessons when it seemed to me like it slowed waaaaaay down & reviewed everything over & over again and introduced very littler).

 

IMO, try Rosie's videos & some food things (without writing anything down at first -- my kids really understood fraction-concepts when all it involved was some cut-up candybars or M&Ms they had to share).

 

When her understanding seems solid from those two things, keep the food (candy) handy & try the problems in MM/Abeka.

 

If it still isn't clicking, skip those problems & come back again later. It could just be developmental.

[RootAnn]

I don't understand how we are supposed to teach 1/2 = 3/6 when a kid hasn't yet mastered 2x3=6.

 

Some kids would be able to tell that 1/2=3/6 by looking at a picture that showed this... say, two circles, one broken up into two parts with one of them shaded & the other broken into six parts with three adjacent ones shaded.

 

Or, the same concept could be taught with c-rods. Rosie's videos might cover something like this...

[Farrar]

Some kids would be able to tell that 1/2=3/6 by looking at a picture that showed this... say, two circles, one broken up into two parts with one of them shaded & the other broken into six parts with three adjacent ones shaded.

 

Or, the same concept could be taught with c-rods. Rosie's videos might cover something like this...

 

Yes, my kids (well, the one who's done Miquon definitely) would just be able to visualize a fraction that simple even without a picture and know that it was true. Unless he was having one of those days when he forgets that 2+2 is 4 or something.