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For Earth Day this year, I decided to create some earth fraction puzzles.
I wanted them to be fun and easy to manipulate for both of my kiddos. But, also be something each of them could get something out of using. Even with their wide age gap. And, these fit the bill!
How We Use Them
I didn’t really have a lesson plan in mind when making these puzzles. Basically, I just wanted to give my kids a chance to play with fractions in a concrete way.
I love giving my kids opportunities to “touch” and manipulate during our math lessons. It is usually when I see those ah-ha moments. And, it’s just fun!
My kiddos do best when I use tactile/kinesthetic aspects. And, these puzzles are a perfect way to offer them a hands-on way to understand fractions.
Seeing a fraction like 1/8th written doesn’t mean much. But, when a child can put their hands on puzzle pieces and put together the whole earth from eight 1/8th pieces, they make connections.
In fact, the 1/8ths puzzle was the first my son put together. And, right away he made the connection to pizza. Well let’s face it, the mind of most tween boys is always close to pizza;)
As he put the puzzle together he was able to connect it to something else he knew, in this case, pizza. And, because he was able to talk through those connections my daughter was able to make new connections too.
So, just letting kids play and discover with these puzzles is invaluable. They will learn so much by manipulating and moving the pieces around whether you plan a lesson around them or not.
Using the Whole Earth as a Base
While attempting the 1/6th puzzle, my daughter started getting frustrated. She kept putting the pieces in the wrong order. So, I had her use the whole earth piece as a base to build her puzzle on. It helped her to orient the continents and complete the puzzle.
And, as she did I was able to point out the continents she was seeing: Africa, Europe, South America, and North America.
I love that these puzzles incorporate geography in our math time. My daughter had to recognize and match the pattern of the continents on the puzzles to put them together. So, yay for combined lessons!:)
Use the Half Pieces as Bases
Another thing we tried was using the half pieces as bases.
Putting two 1/4th pieces into a one-half piece made it easy for my daughter to understand that two quarters make up one half.
Here are some other things you could try:
Lay a few different puzzles out on the table and ask your child to see how many ways they can fill the whole earth piece with other fractions. Talk through their thinking as they attempt different scenarios like the ones below.
- How many 1/8ths fit into half of the earth?
- If you put a 1/3rd piece in the earth how many 1/6ths do you need to fill the rest?
- How much of the earth do those 1/6th’s pieces cover?
There are endless ways to play with these. And, I’m sure we’ll keep finding new ones!
Earth Fraction Puzzles
These puzzles are large, printing one per page. And, are easy to manipulate for even the youngest kids.
I printed ours out (this is the printer I use) on white cardstock so they’d hold up to my kids playing with them. And, you could laminate them too if you wanted to make them last even longer.
I cut the puzzles into pieces and clipped each puzzle together using small craft clothespins. Then, I placed them in a basket on our table as an invitation for my kids to play with during our school day.
I plan to store them in a gallon size freezer bag when we’re done. So, I can easily pull them out and use them again and again as a fun math center.
What’s included in this resource:
- 1 – Set of Full-Color Fraction Earth Puzzles
- 1 Whole to 1/8th Representations
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