When I contemplated teaching little person fractions, I won't lie, I hesitated and wondered how I'd go about it. After all, aren't fractions really hard?
Well, that all came to an end when I found a product that helped us on our journey, and that was Learning resources Deluxe Fractions tower.
How does it work?
The fractions tower is a great concept, which enables the child to visualise what we mean by, for instance 1/8.
You have each tower representing a fraction, so the first tower is a whole, enabling a child to see that the full length of all the towers is exactly the same height, therefore equaling a whole. The second tower is 1/2, and it's nice that this comes next as it once again reinforces how simply dividing the whole by 2 leaves you with two halves. The third tower is 1/3, moving onto 1/4,1/5, 1/6, working through 1/8, 1/10 and finally 1/12.
We started with the basics, this is a whole, in order to achieve a whole using the 1/3 pieces we need all three, and so on. That helped little person understand the idea of what the denominator represented. As a visual learner this was a wonderful breakthrough. The towers also helped little person to comprehend what the numerator represents as well as denominator.
Deluxe fractions tower comes with a stand and activity cards. The cards slot on the back (as in product picture) and the activity is completed using the stand. There are a variety of questions, enabling a child to understand addition and subtraction of fractions. The set also comes with an activity guide, which is very useful when working through each activity.
Cakes or towers?
Cakes are great for fractions, but sometimes all everyone is thinking about is, who gets to eat it(!)
Circles work wonders when discussing fractions, but in order to show children fractions aren't all about circles the tower works really well. It really helped my then 6 year old understand the concept of segments (equal size).
Equal size segments was also something I needed to reinforce, and with my not so great cake cutting, or not so accurate circle drawing, the tower enabled me to do so with ease. The ease of these blocks also made this a win win in this house. I can't really have four separate cakes (ok cakes are always welcome, but one must try to resist!), with each one cut into either halves, quarter, fifths and eighths to visually show how many, for instance quarters make a half and so on.
Would we recommend?
Yes, yes and yes, we would definitely recommend. I can't express how easy fractions have become with the help of the fractions tower. The ability to see, what feels like complicated fractions such as 1/8, easily aligned next to 1/2 to visually see whats happening has helped immensely. It has also helped with ordering fractions, so instead of wondering why the larger denominator is the smaller fraction, little person knows what the denominator represents clearly and understands how to order fractions! This one gets a huge thumbs up!!
Learning resources Deluxe Fractions tower
Well, that all came to an end when I found a product that helped us on our journey, and that was Learning resources Deluxe Fractions tower.
How does it work?
The fractions tower is a great concept, which enables the child to visualise what we mean by, for instance 1/8.
You have each tower representing a fraction, so the first tower is a whole, enabling a child to see that the full length of all the towers is exactly the same height, therefore equaling a whole. The second tower is 1/2, and it's nice that this comes next as it once again reinforces how simply dividing the whole by 2 leaves you with two halves. The third tower is 1/3, moving onto 1/4,1/5, 1/6, working through 1/8, 1/10 and finally 1/12.
We started with the basics, this is a whole, in order to achieve a whole using the 1/3 pieces we need all three, and so on. That helped little person understand the idea of what the denominator represented. As a visual learner this was a wonderful breakthrough. The towers also helped little person to comprehend what the numerator represents as well as denominator.
Deluxe fractions tower comes with a stand and activity cards. The cards slot on the back (as in product picture) and the activity is completed using the stand. There are a variety of questions, enabling a child to understand addition and subtraction of fractions. The set also comes with an activity guide, which is very useful when working through each activity.
Cakes or towers?
Cakes are great for fractions, but sometimes all everyone is thinking about is, who gets to eat it(!)
Circles work wonders when discussing fractions, but in order to show children fractions aren't all about circles the tower works really well. It really helped my then 6 year old understand the concept of segments (equal size).
Equal size segments was also something I needed to reinforce, and with my not so great cake cutting, or not so accurate circle drawing, the tower enabled me to do so with ease. The ease of these blocks also made this a win win in this house. I can't really have four separate cakes (ok cakes are always welcome, but one must try to resist!), with each one cut into either halves, quarter, fifths and eighths to visually show how many, for instance quarters make a half and so on.
Would we recommend?
Yes, yes and yes, we would definitely recommend. I can't express how easy fractions have become with the help of the fractions tower. The ability to see, what feels like complicated fractions such as 1/8, easily aligned next to 1/2 to visually see whats happening has helped immensely. It has also helped with ordering fractions, so instead of wondering why the larger denominator is the smaller fraction, little person knows what the denominator represents clearly and understands how to order fractions! This one gets a huge thumbs up!!
Learning resources Deluxe Fractions tower
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