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Welcome to my math blog! The purpose of this blog is to help you stay informed about our learning and experiences that have taken place during our math class. I have also included links your child (and you) may want to use in order to supplement math learning in 5th grade.

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Multiplying a Fraction and a Whole Number: Fractional Parts of a Whole

Lesson Frame:

  • We will represent and solve problems involving multiplication of a whole number and a fraction.
  • I will represent and solve problems involving multiplication of a whole number and a fraction.

Lesson

This week we will not be completing rotations. I decided that, since we need some time reading and developing models for multiplication of a fraction and a whole number, we would work in small groups this week.

Image result for happy halloween

It was also fun that today was Halloween because it allowed me to use Skittles for modeling fractional parts of a whole!

Our first problem was:


I asked my students how many Skittles they would need to help with this representation (20).  Next, I asked how many groups we would need to split the Skittles into (5) and how they determined their number of groups (denominator).  Once we had our 5 groups, I asked how many were in each group (4).  I asked them to explain how they determined 4 were in each group.  I got one of two answers (1) when you divide the candy piece by piece you ended up with 4 in a group and (2) 20 divided by 5 = 4.

Now that we had our groups, I asked how many groups we were going to use (4) and where they determined that number (numerator).  If we used four groups of the Skittles, how many total? (16)  So how many were black cat stamps?  (16).

Before moving any of the model, I had students add this representation to their math journal.  We continued this process with a few more problems before working in a small group on their exit ticket.

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