Fractions
With Base Ten Blocks.

Using base ten blocks to teach fractions makes basic operations with fractions fun. Even more fun is using measuring cups and water or actually cooking. On these pages you get hours of instruction on fractions.  

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Password Protected Fractions Page.

Introduction to fractions:

An Introduction to fractions.  This is not THE way to do this A way to do it.  You have to know the names of the pieces or it won't be any fun...and simple concepts are easy to understand when presented simply. This short vid shows you fractions tiles AND base ten blocks.

Adding fractions:

Lots of Free Mini Lessons On Fractions!

This page has many free lessons removing any excuse you could possibly have for not making fractions visually obvious. But there's even more instruction and real life examples with my own sons among other students waiting for you on the other side.  "Several" hours worth...

You found your way here! Check back daily...there will be MORE pics and vids and links and stuff added. Particularly unlisted videos.  This is the landing page for the fractions page that is password protected.  The lessons on the other side last longer...but you can get LOTS of ideas for making fractions games and activities watching the free videos here on this page. 

Fractions With Base Ten Blocks is Part of MOD III. Use Mod iii password below. $250.00 Cheap. The password protected factions page is worth the Mod iii password alone. Many forgotten "math secrets" like why we invert and multiply, and how to solve algebra problems like 7x = 1½ or even just 3x = ½ with ease using reciprocals and multiplication instead of division.  

10 years of blog posts featuring the Mortensen Method hidden in plain sight on the internet. 100% FREE. You just have to know what you are looking for you get links to the blog 

Here are some blog posts:

Introduction to pieces. Replaced broken screencast with video, same video up there in this blogpost:

Fractions Intro:

https://crewtonramoneshouseofmath.blogspot.com/2010/12/fractions-intro.html

Equivalent Fractions With The Wee Ones

http://crewtonramoneshouseofmath.blogspot.com/2011/01/equivalent-fractions-with-wee-ones.html

Fractions Despite SPED

http://crewtonramoneshouseofmath.blogspot.com/2011/12/fractions-despite-sped.html

Multi-Tens Make Fractions EZ!

There are fun lessons you won't get anywhere else on the other side use your SW password.  Several hours worth.  May cause binge watching, or so i've been told.  But when you are done binge watching you'll know how to use your base ten manipulatives to teach fractions!!! i show you two ways two present fractions concepts depending on the base ten manipulatives you have.

And of course i have to throw some algebra in there. Finding the ones is fun. Hours of fun await you and yours, explore and discover fractions together. Direct their discovery with base ten blocks.  Common factors become visually obvious. 

With all the vids and links on this page would could possibly be on the other side? PLENTY. Lessons you won't get anywhere else.  Use Mod iii.

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Use your
FRACTIONS KIT
for more than just fractions. 

The short video above gives you a brief introduction to playing with these manipulatives.  On the password protected fractions page you will find a 2 hour masterclass on using this one kit in your homeschool. Helps you master 45 addends and 400 math facts.

Here you see theory in action with a high school student who was having issues with trig, but we found several holes in is math education...and he ended getting a few 100%'s to bring his math grade point average up.

Multiplication and addends. You can see we just got done building tens. Mastering these makes math easy because computation is how we DO math. Very hard to do math when you can't add or subtract numbers easily in your head or multiply them without having to think hard about 3 times 8. 

Short excerpt from an hour long
math enrichment
session. 

The child is five.  Here you see theory in action, one the other side you get lessons that show you how to best use your manipulatives to teach fractions concepts. 

These videos how i go to fractions to teach addends and multiplication. Use your imagination and make up games and activities for your child or students.  These short videos should give you some ideas. 

Short excerpt:

Using base ten blocks to teach fractions makes life easier for everybody. The fact that fractions are so misunderstood has become a joke. What you will find on this page besides the basics and links to videos and blog posts are some of the reasons WHY so many fail at not only understanding fractions but why so many teachers fail to teach them well.

Joy & fun aids in learning. Make games and activities out your pieces and lessons. This is a simple game of making equivalent fractions...

Make a game of it:

Articles and Books:

Over the years i have found that next to long division, fractions are one of the most reviled topics in mathematics until we get to algebra.  i, myself, went to summer school because of fractions but after just one day with a good teacher i understood basic operations with fractions and i distinctly remember telling my mother i had it wired and didn't really need to go back but i wanted to because of all the other cool stuff that was going on there for summer school...mom tested me (mom was a teacher remember) and i got every question right.

What was made clear is that the rules didn't change when we got to fractions...once a few misconceptions were cleared up the rest was easy.

i never really did learn WHY you invert and multiply until I met Jerry Mortensen...and even then he didn't explain it to me he made me explain it to myself.

Quarter Pounder
or
Third of a Pounder?

Well four is bigger than three, right?

The now famous story of why the quarter pounder won the burger wars. 

Only when the company held customer focus groups did it become clear why.

The Third Pounder presented the American public with a test in fractions. And we failed.

Misunderstanding the value of one-third, customers believed they were being overcharged. Why, they asked the researchers, should they pay the same amount for a third of a pound of meat as they did for a quarter-pound of meat at McDonald’s. The “4” in “¼,” larger than the “3” in “⅓,” led them astray.

Here is a long article: 

Why Do Americans Stink at Math?

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/magazine/why-do-americans-stink-at-math.html

Because the methods and algorithms they use to teach math suck. 

"One of Ma's four questions was to divide 1 3/4 by 1/2 and to make up a story for this problem. Only 9 of the 23 American teachers gave the correct answer in an appropriate form (3 3/4 or 7/2 or 3.5). Several gave incomplete answers like 14/4 or 28/8, whereas six gave no answer.

All 72 Chinese teachers gave the correct answer in an appropriate form.

Many of the American teachers who answered correctly were merely recalling a procedure (invert the denominator and multiply) that they could not explain.

The Chinese teachers not only knew how to divide fractions; most of them could also suggest alternate methods that would have enabled them to connect division of fractions to a student's prior knowledge, or to alert a good student to approaches that might be simpler under some circumstances."

Read more:

https://web.archive.org/web/20111121231339/https://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/chinese-wisdom

Why invert and multiply is explained on the next page...you will be put in a situation where you will discover why for yourself. 

FREE Fractions "Course".

Okay, it's not really a course, it's a link to all the posts on my blog about fractions. Quite a lengthy scroll. Lots of priceless video showing you how to use your materials to teach fractions and have fun doing it. 

Most kids HATE fractions. My sons thank me constantly because they can "think fractionally", or use fractions to figure stuff out whereas their peers see fractions and immediately shut down. Even when it's something easy like 3 sandwiches divided evenly among five friends. 

"Fractions Course" Free Fractions Lessons From My Blog:

http://crewtonramoneshouseofmath.blogspot.com/search/label/fractions

Lots of short lessons (youtube videos) on my blog. Sadly the screencasts are all gone.  The other side has HOURS of videos, the free ones are all short. But i think you SEE how easy manipulatives make fractions. Plus you see how fractions help teach multiplication. 

No fun get back to one absolutely helps make understanding fractions EZ. 

Link to blog and many posts with many videos.

You need the module three password.  On the other side you will find videos & worksheets you won't find anywhere else made specifically For your base 10 blocks from Mortensen Math.  Have overlays from other companies like MUS, that are basically identical to the ones you'll find in the fractions kit, You can of your course use those. The tray does come in handy for presentations...and identification games but you don't need it and it is a bit of a pain to store.  i like having one. 

If you are prone to binge watching, the videos on the other side will fill the need...and when you are done you will be excellent at fractions concepts and then you should exhibit mastery by teaching others.

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Everyday math activities. 

Here are DBoyz playing math with food.

Glossary of terms:

Math Terms/Definitions: Fractions

Fraction - a rational number of the form a/b where a is called the numerator and b is called the denominator.

Cancellation - simplifying the multiplication of fractions, the process of abridging operations in division by rejecting equal factors. If a numerator is equal to or a multiple of a denominator one of the numbers may be divided into the other. If the numerator and the denominator have the same number, these two numbers cancel out. If, after these, the numerator is larger than the denominator, there is a remainder when they are divided.

Complex Fraction - a fraction whose numerator, or denominator, or both, are fractional.

Denominator - the number below the fraction bar that indicates how many parts into which the whole is divided.

Farey Sequence - the sequence obtained by arranging in numerical order all the proper fractions having denominators not greater than a given integer.

Fractional Numbers - express parts of a number.

Fractional Parts - portions of an object or quantity which has been divided into smaller pieces.

Improper Fraction - a simple fraction whose value is equal to or greater than one, the numerator is greater than the denominator.

Least Common Denominator - the smallest number that can be used as the common denominator for a group of fractions.

Lowest Common Denominator - the smallest number that is exactly divisible by each denominator of a set of fractions.

Lowest Terms - a fraction in which the numerator and denominator have no common factor.

Numerator - the number above the fraction bar that indicates the number of parts of the whole that are in a rational number, the number in the top half of the fraction.

Proper Fraction - a simple fraction whose value is less than one, the numerator is smaller than the denominator.

Ratio - a rational number of the form a/b where a is called the numerator and b is called the denominator, a comparison of numbers, the quotient or result of one quantity divided by another (fraction).

Rational Number - a number that can be written as a fraction with integers as the numerator and denominator.

Rationalize the Denominator - a process that gets rid of the radical in the denominator. NFGBT1.

Simple Fraction - one which has a single integral numerator and denominator.

Solidus - the slanted line in a fraction such as a/b dividing the numerator from the denominator.

Unit Fraction - a fraction whose numerator is 1.

Vinculum - the horizontal bar in a fraction separating the numerator from the denominator. 

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Fraction Worksheets
Get Module III Password. $250.00 quite reasonable, i must say. LOOK at everything you get! Fractions pages ALONE are worth that. Great homeschool resource. 
Sara's Page is full of videos on fractions and ratios.

Fractions On the Blog CAUTION:Clicking this link may cause binge watching...fortunately most of the vids are short.

https://crewtonramoneshouseofmath.blogspot.com/search/label/Fractions%20Tile

https://crewtonramoneshouseofmath.blogspot.com/search/label/Fractions%20Problem%20Solving

Here are a few FREE PDFs you:

Some old articles about Mortensen Math.

Scope and Sequence of the Books.

Judy Townsend on "why" Mortensen Math

Progress Charts For Mortensen Math Books

Skip Count Underlays

Practice Polynomials For Addends and Multiplication

Five Basic Concepts.

Principles

Kirk's Fraction PDF

Fraction Worksheets 

Free Sample Lesson