Learning fractions out of cutting salad ingredients - it works!

Last week I was working with the year 1/2 class at Torrensville Primary School and the students were given a salad problem as we considered healthy foods.

The problem: Last night my neighbour's little boy came to visit so we made some salad.

• We chopped the veggies.
• We chopped 5 baby costs lettuces in half.
• We chopped 4 tomatoes into halves
• We chopped 3 carrots into quarters.
• We chopped 2 celery sticks into eighths.

After we had eaten the salad, Kai asked how many pieces we had made with all that chopping. I said I would ask my students to work it out for him.

The following work samples are just a few of the many solutions that the students found.

In the last sample, you can see four plates after the first working out. That little girl finished so easily that she needed the sting in the tail!

• We put the salad equally shared onto four plates - so what was on each plate?

Look closely and you will see that two lettuce halves were cut again and a quarter put onto each plate.

The students needed no assistance getting started and one child called out "Eighths means eight pieces doesn't it?" That was the only hint as such. It is amazing how easily students work with fractions if we let them work intuitively rather than try to teach adult-centred strategies.

Try it with your students and email us the results - john@naturalmaths.com.au. Have a great week!