A Fraction-a-licious Lesson! ~ The Fraction Insets

The lessons on fractions are highly anticipated at our little yellow school.  They are introduced to children in their third year of the Montessori casa (preschool) program.  All of the children in the classroom are drawn to and fascinated by the two trays of red circles divided into many parts.

Parents who visit our school often marvel at the fact that we are teaching the children fractions.  For the children, it is just a natural progression of the Arithmetic materials.  The aim of the Fraction Insets materials is to introduce the child to the idea of fractions as the division of a whole into equal parts.

The children are introduced to the Fraction Insets and are invited to freely handle and explore them.  This includes taking out the sections, counting them, comparing them, etc.

Explain to the children that each circle represents a fraction, which is taking a whole (the circle) and breaking it into equal parts that are all exactly the same.

The children are then introduced to the names for the parts of each circle - whole, halves, thirds, etc.

Children are then able to go further by exploring numerators and denominators.


So why is this lesson so anticipated and so memorable?  Well, the lesson is introduced with food!  This year it was blueberry muffins that we cut into halves and then quarters to illustrate that fractions are part of our daily lives.  After eating his piece of blueberry muffin a child declared 'Fractions are fraction-a-licious!"