Need Help With FRACTIONS? Try this HOT or NOT Dorito project at home or school.
If you want to teach your child or students how to identify a PART of the WHOLE, then here’s how the Doritos project will work:
STEP 1: Place several Doritos in a row. Some will be HOT and some will NOT.
STEP 2: Then ask your child or students to tell you what fraction is HOT….or what fraction is NOT HOT.
Let’s pretend that you ask them “What fraction of ALL the Doritos is HOT?” Another way to say it is “What fraction of the WHOLE SET of Doritos is HOT?”
STEP 3: If needed, encourage them to circle just the HOT Doritos. (Like in the picture below.)
STEP 4: When your child says the fraction of the whole set of Doritos is 2/6….that’s fantastic because they are right!
STEP 5: Now it’s time to simplify the fraction. Ask them, “what factor or number goes into 2 and also into 6? Hopefully they say… 2.
STEP 6: Now divide the numerator (2) by TWO and divide the denominator (6) by TWO.
STEP 7: Your answer should now be ⅓.
STEP 8: See if they understand that 2/6 is the same as (or equal to) ⅓.
If not, then you will want to do a lesson on what EQUIVALENT FRACTIONS are!!!
<<< You can repeat this process again for the Doritos that are NOT HOT. >>>
This Doritos project will also work if you want to teach your child or students how to identify the RATIObetween the HOT Doritos and the NOT HOT Doritos.
What do I mean by RATIO? It’s a number that represents the comparison between two things. In other words, how many HOT Doritos are there in comparison to how many are NOT HOT. Take a look at this picture:
Let us know in the comments what your child is doing with learning fractions. Or maybe they are ready to dive into equivalent fractions, or multiplying and dividing fractions. Let us know how we can help!
