Indiana Math Standard: 3.NS

Scrambled up somewhere in 161,000 is a first name. Can you find it!?

How heavy is the world’s heaviest pumpkin when measured in Mr. Byrds?

Can your students figure out how to add fractions by looking for a pattern?

What if you set the stage for students to discover how to multiply fractions?

One equation. Digits one through nine. How many ways can you make it work?

How many different ways can you make this math statement true using only the digits zero through nine?

What if we took a fraction apart, then took those pieces apart, then recombined them, and then recombined those, arriving back to the original fraction?

What do you do with students who already get their fraction operations? Give them a contrived project about recipes or pizza slices? Make them solve annoyingly hard practice problems? Please. Here, we get students thinking in a whole new way, pondering which has more power, the numerator or denominator.

Which set of fractions would be the trickiest to order from least to greatest? Let’s have a tournament!

When fractions take on a new denominator, it’s as if they’re wearing a disguise – same value, new look. So let’s write a story about fraction equivalence starring a fraction who needs to fit in with a new group.

Place value is something we cover in elementary school. It seems simple, but I’d wager that very few adults really understand the topic. I sure didn’t until I worked with non-base-10 number systems in college. Your students can get a taste of this mind-boggling experience by imagining what it would be like if we didn’t have the number 9. What would each digit represent then?

What does it look like to multiply fractions?

You only have six digits to form three fractions. Can you combine them to get to 0?

You’ve got 60 spaces on a grid to create an amusement park, a house, a farm, or whatever you’d like. Divide it into seven pieces, order it by size, combine into two halves, and more in this fraction project.