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Fraction Concepts

Fraction concepts are a vital skill for your child to master. If understanding fractions is not fully accomplished - later math studies, such as probability, ratios, statistics, percentages and algebra (just to name a few) will prove extremely frustrating for your child.

When your student was learning whole numbers the important 'anchor' numbers first learned were 0, 5 and 10. In fractions we have 'anchor' numbers also but they are different! They are 0 , 1/2 and 1. If a child can identify that 1/4 is greater than 0, but less than 1/2 - it will not be difficult for them to see that 1 1/4 is greater than 1 but less than 1 1/2.

Students may not quickly grasp the terms 'equal size' or 'equal portion' but they definately understand "fair share"!

When referring to the numbers of a fraction - when starting out, simply use 'top number' and 'bottom number'. There is a lot of new stuff going on - we don't need to initially bombard kids with mathematic terms. The terms Numerator and Denominator will be introduced soon enough.

There are three parts to the fraction. Once your child understands them completely and with confidence, move on to adding fractions. These three parts are

A visual representation of Three Sixths or 3/6

$fraction concepts$	The Whole - The Whole can be one thing or a number of things.
$Understanding fractions$	The Denominator - The number bellow the line. This tells us how many equal parts the whole is divided into. As the number below the line in this case is 6, we know the 'Whole' was divided equally into six parts.
$fractions$	The Numerator - The number above the line. This tells us how many of the equal parts we actually have. We can see the shaded section (green) is three of the six original pieces, so we have Three of Six Equal Parts or 3/6.

It does not matter how long it takes for a student to understand the concepts of a fraction and its different parts. If you move on before they do, everything else will be a struggle.

Be sure to take advantage of our fraction concept worksheets found in our fraction worksheets section. Please also, don't forget to print out some fraction manipulatives. They certainly make understanding fractions easier.

I hope you enjoy this section of K6Math.com

Move fromfraction concepts to printable math worksheets home page or K6Math numbers section.

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