Cheap Fraction Manipulatives Math manipulatives are very helpful, especially in the early childhood classroom. Some manipulatives can be rather expensive though. A quick and cheap way to have fraction manipulatives for your classroom is to save egg cartons.
Whenever you go to the store try to buy different colored cartons to divide up into fractions (it's fine to use the same color, I just prefer multicolored). Then, cut the cartons to show fractions. They are easy to stack on top of each other so show fractions are equal, greater, or less than one another. Obviously 1/12= the place where one egg would go, 1/6= two eggs and so on. You could even cut the egg cartons with the class to show how you are getting each of the fractions.
For an activity give a problem such as is 4/12 greater than, less than, or equal to 1/3. Then, give the students 4 individual egg holders (4 1/12 pieces) and 1 1/3 piece (which is made up of 4 egg holders still together-ahead of time demonstrate to the students how that equals 1/3 of the carton).
Math manipulatives are very helpful, especially in the early childhood classroom. Some manipulatives can be rather expensive though. A quick and cheap way to have fraction manipulatives for your classroom is to save egg cartons.
Whenever you go to the store try to buy different colored cartons to divide up into fractions (it's fine to use the same color, I just prefer multicolored). Then, cut the cartons to show fractions. They are easy to stack on top of each other so show fractions are equal, greater, or less than one another. Obviously 1/12= the place where one egg would go, 1/6= two eggs and so on. You could even cut the egg cartons with the class to show how you are getting each of the fractions.
For an activity give a problem such as is 4/12 greater than, less than, or equal to 1/3. Then, give the students 4 individual egg holders (4 1/12 pieces) and 1 1/3 piece (which is made up of 4 egg holders still together-ahead of time demonstrate to the students how that equals 1/3 of the carton).
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