How Many Each?

After a great day at EdCampOttawa, I came home to a roast chicken dinner (yes, my husband is a great cook) along with roasted veggies.  While helping himself to seconds, my 8-year old, Noah, complained that he hadn't gotten enough potatoes.  My husband said that he had cut 4 potatoes into 4.  The kids quickly figured out that there had been 16 potato slices.  I then asked how many we would each get if they were equally distributed among us (us being 6 people).  They tried 2 and counted up to 12, then tried 3 and counted up to 18 (in 3s) so they knew it was more than 2 but fewer than 3 pieces each.  Noah then said that it wasn't 2 and a half.  I asked him how he knew.  He got mad at me, screamed that he wasn't doing this anymore and stomped away from the table.  So I turned to Jacob, who is 6, and asked him the same question as I had seen him making gestures with his hands that looked like he was figuring it out.  He told us that if they each got 2 and a half pieces, that would be 15 pieces.  At some point my 10-year old said she had figured it out, but actually managed to not yell out the answer (good job, Isabelle!).  So back to Jacob.  We went back to knowing it was more than 2 pieces each which he told me would be 12 pieces. I asked how many pieces were left to be divided among us.  He said 4.  He wanted to give each kid 1 and the adults none, but I said we each had to get the same amount.  Then he thought Noah shouldn't get any since he had left the table.  With a little encouragement he said we could "chop, chop" the pieces into 3.  So how many pieces would that make?  12, he counted. And then he figured that once around the table was 6 so he could around the table another time and we would each get 2 of the cut-up pieces.  So 2 and two-thirds each.  Just as we were saying this Noah yelled from the next room - 2 and a half and one sixth each!  Yes, Noah.  Yes :)  Then he sat back down and finished eating.

Fractions are not Frightening

At supper tonight, Isabelle told her little brother, Jacob, that he is 12 halves.  He had no idea what she was taking about.  She proceeded to explain to him that she could take 6 and write it in terms of halves by doubling 6 and getting 12.  He was not impressed.  But he's 6 and there was no Star Wars Lego involved so this is not surprising.

I couldn't let this opportunity pass so I asked Isabelle if she knew that she is 125 twelfths.  She looked at me with a confused-yet-I-accept-this-challenge look and started thinking it through.  Then she gave up and asked for the answer.  Fat chance!  I asked her how many months there are in a year.  Light bulb...she got the 120 twelfths and thought she had finished.  I asked her what month we are.  Another light bulb...only this was was not shining as brightly!  She came up with 120 twelfths and 1/5 (it has been 5 months since her birthday).  Nope.  And no to giving her the answer.  She wanted paper.  Nope (we were eating) - I told her she had all the pieces already.  And she thought about it a little more and got 10 and 5/12 which is 120/12 and 5/12 or 125/12.

Then we said that Noah is 101/12, but she was done (and apparently no one cared how old Chloë is, but she was refusing to eat her supper, so I guess that's fair.)  That's okay - fractions are such a mystery to so many kids, I am glad that mine think they are kind of fun.  Hmmm....this is probably exactly what my students think I do at home!