Leverton Math Studio

Finally, a great math pun.

Yesterday we worked on an equivalent fractions Tarsia puzzle! These are the before and after photos. My student felt a great sense of achievement when he finished building his paper pyramid.

Yesterday’s lesson on Fact Families involved toy cars and a parking lot! Not to mention a very willing participant whose ability to write his numbers vastly improved.

Working with fractions doesn’t just have to be about working through worksheets or drawing pie charts. Lego provides all sorts of fun ways to understand fractions: equivalent fractions, adding and subtracting fractions, and even just representing specific fractions with whatever Lego pieces you have kicking around in your house.

I’m not suggesting you should eat 1/2 of a chocolate cake (maybe just 1/4!), but I just wanted to share some real world examples of when you might use fractions:

- altering a recipe (serves 2 but you want it to serve 3 people).
- figuring out what 18% of your takeout order is so that you can tip accordingly (although this is mostly taken care of for you if you are using an Interac device). Once we can dine out again and resume using cash, this is a useful skill.
- test results are expressed in either fractional (18/20) or percentage (90%) form.
- determining whether a percentage discount is as good a deal as a flat rate discount (e.g., 40% of $70 as opposed to $30 off).
- is that “Buy 3 Get 1” deal really that good a deal? You get 25% off for buying four items, but do you really need four bottles of shower gel? If you only buy two bottles you will have spent less (and aren’t stuck with four bottles of products that you might never use).

Please message me if you have a Grade K-8 student who wants to learn more about math concepts and how they relate to real life. I offer one-to-one Zoom tutoring tailored to each student’s needs.

Does anything involving fractions make you feel fractious? Understandable. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Using everyday items we can approach mathematical questions involving fractions in a easy-to-understand and relatable way.

From Grammerly.com: “Fractious means quarrelsome, difficult to control, irritable, hard to handle. Usually, the word fractious is applied to children who are out of sorts ... Interestingly, the word fractious is derived from the word fraction. An obsolete meaning of the word fraction is discord, fighting, quarrelsomeness. This definition of the word fraction is preserved in the word fractious.”

Which fraction of photos of Winnie show both his eyes facing forwards? (Note shameless use of my cat in order to catch your attention).