Thursday, February 26, 2015

Back Up and Running... Here Are Some Fraction Word Problem Strategies

Hello Everyone!

It's been awhile since I blogged. It's time to get back at it! I've learned so much about the Common Core standards in the past year or two. It's been a really rich learning experience for me. My fourth graders have become quite proficient mathematicians with the CCSS standards. I just LOVE how their number sense has improved drastically...

Check out some of my student work below. Here they are showing off multiple strategies for solving fraction word problems.

The problem asked them,"If a boy ate 3/4 cups of blueberries each day for 2 days in a row, how much did he have total?" As you can see, my student rounded 3/4 down to 2/4 to solve it (he used relational thinking). Then he rounded up to 4/4 to solve it. He then added or subtracted by the correct amount to get his answer. This was a very unique method to solving the problem. Most kids did 3/4 x 2 or they did 3/4 + 3/4. I was impressed with Zach's critical thinking.



Another problem asked kids, "If he enjoyed 3/4 cups of blueberries for 9 days total, how much did he have in all?" As you can see, the first child did both multiplication and a number line strategy to solve this. The second student multiplied 3/4 by 8 and then added on the extra 3/4s. He also did repeated of addition of 3/4 for 9 times until he found his solution. I love the variety of strategies!




Here is what my bulletin board looks like now! We're showing off a variety of strategies for the 2 problems from above. The kids enjoy learning from one another. They know they're allowed to go up and un-pin another student's work for the day (as long as they replace it later) and try using another student's method to solving a fraction word problem. It's a very neat interactive bulletin board.


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