Fractions & Decimals for 3rd Graders

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Study plan for 3rd grader in Fraction and Decimal

What is a Fraction?
A fraction is a part of a whole.
The two numbers that compose a fraction are called the: numerator/denominator

For the fraction 3/8, the numerator is 3, and the denominator is 8. The easy way to remember which is which is to associate the word denominator with the word down. (1) The numerator indicates the number of parts you are considering, the denominator indicates the number of equal parts contained in the whole. (1) You can represent any fraction graphically by shading the number of parts of being considered (numerator) out of the whole (denominator). (1)

Example:

Pizza is cut into 8 equal slices, you ate 3 of them. The fraction 3/8 tells you what part of the pizza you ate.

Three Kinds of Fraction

Proper Fractions
In proper fraction, the top number is less than the bottom number:
1/2 ; 2/3; 4/9; 8/13

The value of a proper fraction is less than 1.
Example: If you eat 3 slices of pizza that is cut into 8 slices. Each slice is 1/8 of the pizza.
You have eaten 3/8 of the pizza.

Improper Fractions
In an improper fraction, the top number is greater than or equal to the bottom number:
3/2 ; 5/3 ; 14/9; 12/12

The value of an improper fraction is 1 or more. (1)
When the top and bottom numbers are the same, the value of the fraction is 1. (1)
For example, all of these fractions are equal to 1: 2/2 ; 3/3 ; 4/4 ; 5/5 , etc.
Any whole number can be written as an improper fraction by writing that number as the top number of a fraction whose bottom number is 1, for example, 4/1= 4.

Mixed Numbers

When a fraction is written to the right of a whole number, the whole number and fraction together constitute a mixed number:

3 ½, 4 2/3, 12 ¾ , 24 ¾

The value of a mixed number is greater than 1: It is the sum of the whole number plus the fraction.

Changing Improper Fractions into Mixed or Whole Numbers
1. Divide bottom number into top number. (1)
2. If there is remainder, change it into a fraction by writing it as the top number over the bottom number of the improper fraction. (1)
Example: Change 13/2 into a mixed number.

3. Divide the bottom number ( 2) into top number (13) to get the whole number portion ( 6) of them mixed number
4. Write the remainder of the division (1) over the original bottom number ( 2)
5. Write the two number together:
6. Check: Change the mixed number back into an improper fraction. If you get the original improper fraction, your answer is correct.

Include a chapter on Converting Fractions

A fraction means "divide." The top number of the fraction is divided by the bottom number.(1)
For example, ¾ means " 3 divided by 4," or may be written as 3 ÷ 4 . (1) The value of ¾ is the same as the quotient you get when you do the division. Thus, ¾ = 0.75, this is the decimal value of the fraction. ¾ of a dollar is the same thing as 0.75, which can also be written as $0.75, the decimal value of ¾. (1)

Reducing the Fraction
Reducing a fraction is writing the fraction in it lowest term with smaller numbers. (1) For instance, 50/ 100 in the reduced form is ½ of a dollar. (1) 50/100 reduces to ½. When you reduce a fraction, you do not change its value. (1) When you do arithmetic with ...