Age: 6
Presentations: Putting Fractiosn in order from 1 to tenth, Matching Fractions From Whole to a Tenth
Note: Here are my other posts on our Fraction presentations.
Traditionally, Montessori fractions start in first grade. Now that Astroboy is officially in elementary, it is time to visit the subject.
I showed Astroboy a bit of it along side Thumper our first year homeschooling. I spent a lot of time making materials and we zoomed through nomenclature, The AMI style albums were a bit thin on follow up and the children weren’t too interested in making booklets. Following the presentations, I tried having Thumper look for equivalence, she disliked the repetitive work.
Because of all this, we kind of gave up on fractions altogether our second year. This year, with Thumper starting state testing, it is time to go back and cover all the subjects we were supposed to be teaching but never get around to.
In my Montessori albums, you start Fractions with nomenclature. In Montessori primary, this is done with the skittles. Astroboy did this once or twice. He wasn’t too interested. In elementary, you start with the fraction insets, which I did not bring to Taiwan.
What I learned about teaching Fractions
I did, however, bring my paper fraction circles. And I’m taking a completely different approach with Astroboy. It took me 2 years to realize that I need to supplement my AMI style album with an AMS style one like NAMC. I’m using the NAMC Mastery Checklist from their math album and they’ve got all the presentations spelled out.
My interpretation is that my trainer wouldn’t really go for this because you’re supposed to kind of follow the child’s interest and design follow ups appropriately. That is why our albums don’t have too many follow ups. For homeschoolers, the other style works better. You can still skip and choose presentations. However, all the recipe is right there. Otherwise, there is inaction on my part, trying to think of what follow ups to give.
The Montessori Teacher’s Collective has a very nice online outline on the Fraction presentations. For Astroboy, we are going through the section titled “Understanding What Fractions Are“, basically learning nomenclature. In my album, it is 3 simple presentations to learn the concrete metal insets, their names, and matching their names to the insets. In the online one, there are 7 presentations total. Looking through the presentations, you can see that they’re spending a lot of time in the second stage of learning.
The Presentations
1. Introduction to Fractions
Because Astroboy already learned fraction from daily life, we did a quick 15 minute presentation with no follow up. All I did was to bring out each individual fraction pie and we learned the concept that fraction is the division of a whole into parts. He was able to read fractions fairly quickly.
The hard part is always how Chinese and English flips the way they say fractions. 三分之一 vs one third. It always throws the children of. But, the good thing is that this really illustrates the concept of fractions, since in Chinese you’re saying “3 parts” to start with.
The other thing to remember is that the conception of fraction is either
- dividing a whole into parts, like a pizza into slices, or
- dividing a set into parts, like multiple candies into 1 or 2.
2. Putting Fraction in order from 1 to tenth
As I mentioned, anytime we have to do fraction booklets, the children drop it after a few. So one day, I pulled out 10 fraction pieces and asked him to find and trace them in order from 1 to 1/10. He was reluctant until I told him he could color them with Montessori number colors. Even then, I had to sit with him while he did it and pull him back whenever he got distracted.
Once he was done, I let him go off. Two years ago I would have tried to get him to repeat the exercise himself or complete the work himself. But I’ve since learned in a homeschool environment, with no other children around to keep you interested, I have to keep presentations short and expect no repetition.
3. Matching Fractions From Whole to a Tenth
This exercise really asks the children to learn the metal fraction pieces by heart and recognize them by sight. I modified the online presentations to suit my laminated fraction circles. First, I brought out 2 sets of fraction pieces from 1 to 1/10. I laid out one set in order and asked Astroboy to choose one and match them without looking at the label on the red side. (the red side tells you the fraction size)
Next, I put Set 1 in a bag and asked Astroboy to pick one fraction out. He had to fill this fraction piece with his hand (the typical Montessori sensorial exercise) while the Set 2 is covered. Once he is certain, he puts the fraction piece down and looks for its match in Set 2. He verifies his result by putting one piece on top of the other.
Astroboy liked this exercise because it was a game and clamored for more. As I mentioned, the presentation is about really learning the sizes of these fraction pieces by heart. So I switched to the classic Montessori blind fold game. Astroboy was blindfolded and one set of fraction put in the bag. He had to find whatever fraction piece I called for purely by feeling them. I asked for 1, 1/3, 1/5, 1/7, 1/9, 1/2, 1/8, 1/10, 1/6.
I was very much surprised by how he did not make any mistakes. It’s quite amazing. Plus, we had such a good time playing and learning now that I don’t expect him to pick up these exercises himself after the presentation.
Our next step is equivalence. Let’s hope it goes much smoother than it did for Thumper!
