This week’s game is chosen in honor of Dr. Cotter’s granddaughter, AnnaRene, marrying her best friend and most amazing man, Chris, almost exactly a year ago. It was a magical day. I still choke up when I think of Chris’s face when he first saw his bride walking down the aisle. He actually had to wipe the tears from his eyes….. Here they are: Mr. and Mrs. St. Amant.
Because two became one, we are going to play the fraction game One or Two found in the Math Card Games book, game number F18. This game helps the players work with fractions greater than one.
You can download a fraction chart to use for this game. Keep one chart intact and cut a second chart apart so the pieces can be moved around. You will need both the full chart and the pieces for this game. A sturdy plastic chart is also available; it comes with one full chart and a second set already cut apart for you.
We’re going to look at fractions greater than one by extending the fraction chart to look at what makes two. Ask a child to take a 1/4 piece and add it to the 1/4 row on the fraction chart. Tell her we call this 5/4.
Ask her to add another 1/4. Tell her this is called 6/4.
Continue with 7/4 and 8/4.
Using the 1-piece, show her how 8/4 is the same as 2.
Of course, all the other rows can go through the same process.
Help the children discover that when the numerator, the top number, is the same as the denominator, the bottom number, the fraction equals 1. When the numerator is twice the denominator, the fraction equals 2.
Although it’s not necessary for the children to know for the game, you can tell the children that fractions with the numerator less than the denominator are called proper fractions. When the numerator is equal or is greater than the denominator, it is called an improper fraction.
Using our Fraction Card Deck, use all the fraction cards except one each of 1/4, 2/3, 3/5, and 7/8. This will give us 71 cards to play the game. Two or four players can play this game. As always, teams may play if you have more than four who want to play!
Lay out nine cards face up in three rows of three cards each. The remaining cards form the stock.
The first player checks over the nine cards and collects combinations that total 1 or 2. An option here might be 1/4, 1/4, and 1/2, which equals one. Use the fraction chart and pieces to help find possibilities.
Another option is 9/10, 7/10, and 2/5, which equals two.
Since we’re looking to collect the most cards, both options will give three cards. We’re going to go with the second option because it’s more fun….
The next player fills in the missing cards and looks for cards totaling 1 or 2. See anything?
What about the 1/6 and 5/6?
But we could also add in the 2/9, 1/9, and 2/3! Now we have five cards to collect. We’re going to do this!
If a player cannot find any combinations, he skips his turn and removes the middle row with three new cards. These cards are buried in the stock. The next player fills in the empty spaces and takes her turn.
Players continue taking turns until the stock is exhausted. No extra cards should remain. The winner is the person that collects the most cards.
THANK YOU for playing this game out here. I like the games book, but I LOVE the colors in the above example. I learn by seeing, so this really helped me…and what a FUN game! I can’t wait until we reach that point in our math journey.