Homework and a look at our learning about fractions and decimals.

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Homework

Convert the following fractions into decimals:

1/5, 1/8, 2/5, ½ , 2/4

--------------What we are learning.------------------------------------------------------------------------

I share with students each day their 'must', 'should', 'could'. These are learning goals (or targets) we are striving for during our lesson or longer unit. For math, today, we were exploring how to change the fractions in our cupcake recipes into decimals.

Must: Know that a fraction is a way of representing division and able to write a fraction as a division problem.

Should: Know the names of fraction parts.

Could: Take the numerator of a fraction and divide it by the denominator to find the equivalent decimal.

Why? As we increase our recipes servings, we will have to increase the ingredients. Some students found that they used decimals to find the number of 'times' they needed to make the recipe in order to serve a larger number of people for a party. By using decimals, the students were able to reduce the amount of 'remaining' cupcakes they found they would have when first using 'multiples' of the original serving size.

For example, Ava needed 54 cupcakes using a recipe that yields 12. She tried 12 X 5 =60 but felt that would be too many extra cupcakes. Since Ava was thinking as a bakery owner, she want to make as close to 56 cupcakes so she wasn't spending any extra money making cupcakes she didn't need.

So...she tried 12 X 4.5 = 54. Ava felt she was a strong enough baker who wouldn't need extra cupcakes and knows she needs to make her recipe 4.5 times.

WHICH LEADS US TO TODAY! :) Here is a good web page on converting fractions to decimals.

http://www.wikihow.com/Change-a-Common-Fraction-Into-a-Decimal

Today we learned the 'what' behind fractions. How fractions are really a way to record a division problem waiting to be solved. Students took n

notes as we even talked a little about algebra.

So... taking ¾. 3 is the numerator represented by 'n'. 4 is the denominator represented by 'd'. If fractions represent the division problem 'n' divided by 'd', we wrote it out as we would normally with 'n' underneath the division symbol and 'd' in the front of the division symbol. (This is hard to write out not having the dividing image).

Then we took ¾ as our example and divided 3 by 4 making sure we put the 3 underneath and 4 in the front.

When we found that we could take no '4's out of a 3, we added a decimal point on the top of the division system right after the 3, then placed a '0' to the right of the 3. This lets us know that any numbers to the right of the decimal are not 'whole'. So we are finding parts! You can follow along belong. Just watch for where you place the decimal point and where you place the zeros you need to solve the problem.

REMEMBER! Decimals have NO remainders. So you need to keep solving until you have nothing left to divide OR the numbers repeat!

Homework

Convert the following fractions into decimals:

1/5, 1/8, 2/5, ½ , 2/4