Developing Number Sense for Fractions

Adding Fraction for Game Points in our Homeschooling We’ve been playing a RightStart matching game for percentages and fractional equivalencies. The way that we have been calculating our scores for this game has been by adding all the fractions from the pairs. There are many activities that I have in my math curricula Fractions Year…

An Introduction to Genetics through Botany

Our Botany Block offered the perfect opportunity for an introduction to genetics with the work of Friar Gregor Mendel. Mendel is the person that bred several generations of pea plants to discover the basic understanding of genetics. In this book Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas, the story of Gregor Mendel is told and…

“Notice and Wonder” with Cuisenaire Rods for Homeschool Math

Today for math we did one of my favorite activities, though I will admit, it is not always my children’s favorite. My daughter, now 10, build a structure with the Cuisinaire Rods, and then we did a “notice and wonder” activity. The structure that she build for today was a pyramid. I could have guessed…

An Inside Look into our Homeschool Math Journal

Some homeschoolers keep a common place book. Some homeschoolers keep a language arts book. We keep a Math Journal. Because I’m not teaching math from a curriculum, keeping a math journal helps us to keep track of where we have been and thus where we are going. When we are stuck on a challenge, we…

Comparing Rods for Fractional Relationships

In this activity we are comparing each rod to each of the others to see the fractional relationship. It looks overwhelming, but it’s not. The first couple of rows or columns are the most challenging and after a pattern emerges, and it becomes much easier.  Having said that, this comparison did take us three to four…

Paper-folding Fraction Activity

This is a math series follows our unit for introduction to fractions in grade 3.  This is one of several. Look for the others by searching “fractions.” Though we are not completely finished with the number line work, it was Friday and the end of a busy week, so we were both looking for something…

Fractions on a Number Line

This is a math series follows our unit for introduction to fractions in grade 3.  This is one of several, and I’m combining several days into one post. This part of the unit all involves number line. Day 3 My intention for our fraction work was to continue with our circles, but it was so…

Fractions-Circles

This is a math series follows our unit for introduction to fractions in grade 3.  This is one of several, and I’m combining several days into one post. This part of the unit all involves circles. Day 1 We opened our fractions unit with cutting circles. I precut 8 different colors of circles, 3 of…