One of our ongoing “topics” at the moment is fractions. We have been trying to do fun activities that reinforce my son’s understanding of fractions. Just trying to bring them into our normal everyday life so that spotting something is a third becomes second nature for him. I don’t want fractions to be something that is strange but rather something that is totally normal and not scary. And this game has been a great addition to our fraction activities.
The game is not complicated, it is bingo but bingo using fractions. The set comes with 4 double-sided bingo cards, game markers (circle star cards) and a double-sided spinner. The game has two levels (one side of the bingo cards has a purple background so you use the purple side of the spinner with these ones and the other side of the bingo cards has a blue background so you use the blue side of the spinner with these). Level 1 is basic fraction recognition.
The kids spin the spinner and then call out the fraction that the arrow is pointing at.
If you have a picture depicting that fraction on your bingo card you place one of the star cards over it and then the next player spins the spinner.
You continue until someone gets three stars in a line.
Really straight forward but great for kids who needed to practice both recognising fractions and calling the fractions by the correct name (eg if the spinner points at 1 over three they need to say one-third ).
My youngest enjoyed the challenge of getting the three stars in a line and I must admit that the more he played it the quicker he got at finding the correct fractions.
Level 2 is Equivalent Fractions.
Exactly the same game but now when the arrow points at 4/8 the kids need to work out that it is the same as 1/2 and then place the star marker on the 1/2 picture.
I had intended to just play the Equivalent fraction level with my daughter but my youngest had enjoyed level 1 so much that he really wanted to join in. (I have not really covered equivalent fractions with my youngest yet but he does sit at the table when his older sister is doing her Maths so I am aware that a lot of what she is learning does go in, as he often asks me questions about something that she has been doing).
So to help him we got out our fraction towers and I showed him how he could work out the Equivalent Fractions by seeing if 4 pieces of the eighth tower added together would be the same height as the 1/3 piece or the 1/2 piece. He liked this and happily joined in (we did need to give him a bit of time to match the pieces together every time we spun the arrow but both his sister and I were happy to do that as we like being able to include him).
As we played the game he listened to how his sister would work out the Equivalent Fractions, by dividing the fraction by 2 or 3 etc and after some time he stopped using the fraction tower pieces and started doing the division himself.
So in the end a simple fraction recognition game not only allowed my youngest to practice some basic fractions but it helped him understand equivalent fractions and try some basic division. (And yes I know part of that is the fact that his older sister is so good at including him and explaining to him what she is learning and showing him little tricks to make things easier for him).
My oldest actually said “This is a fun way to practice fractions.” So I think it is safe to say that the Rainbow Fraction Bingo game has been a hit both with the kids and with me – any game/ activity that helps my kids understand Maths is a winner in my books. And yes we will be playing it more in the future so that we can practice and so that the kids can get quicker at recognising the Equivalent Fractions.
You can buy the Rainbow Fraction Bingo game on Amazon Learning Resources Rainbow Fraction Bingo
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