Lunch time fractions

Hands on fractions during lunch time, means fun school. 

Back in November I picked up a set of fraction tiles from Learning Resources at our local Goodwill.  I love the bright colors and the plastic tray to hold everything. I think I paid something around $1.99 for the set (it is missing 1 1/10th tile but has the cardboard pieces as well so it works) The set new retails for $11.99 on their website, and honestly that is still a pretty reasonable price for everything you get. 

I decided to introduce the fraction tiles using a Montessori lesson. We laid the tiles out in rows totally 1 in like colors and I introduced the numbers to him.  Thankfully he already understood some of the concept of fractions from all the time he spends in the shop working with Daddy.

Next we focused on things that equal 1/2. We took combinations of tiles to equal 1/2 and checked with the 1/2 tile to be sure they matched. He also figured out that 1/5 tiles can't be matched up with 1/2 tiles.

 Finally,  we played with mixing up the tiles in rows totalling 1. That part was tricky, but since we had all the tiles ready, I knew he would come up with a combination to use all the tiles and fill the tray. 

Something so simple, but yet we covered a lot of ground in our 20 minute session of lunchtime math. Tomorrow we will work on writing fractions and drawing fractions. I have a set of fraction circles that are magnetic , maybe later in the week we can look at circles as well.