First graders are a goldmine of discovery and excitement. Here’s a lesson idea that will turn fraction time into an epic adventure. Tap into your first graders’ capacity for wonder and innate knack for unlocking underlying patterns.

The idea

Do you know what you get if you compute 3/33? Try it on a calculator! How about 5/55? Hmmm, wow! Did you feel that spark of wonder? You might already know that these are both equal to 1/11 and that’s why they both produce the super cool repeating decimal result. But your first grader (or young math learner in that ball park) doesn’t know the punch line! It’s a mystery, and mysteries are the lifeblood of mathematical curiosity. This activity lets learners play with a few mysteries of division and fractions and encourages them to notice fascinating patterns.

Materials

Each learner or group of learners will need:

• Calculator
• 3 circles, one with 0.0909090909… filled in
• Mystery fraction cards

Plan

Set the scene by passing out calculators and encouraging learners to play around for a few minutes. As I pass out the calculators I might say things like, “Does anyone like making long numbers on calculators?” “Oh, that’s a cool number! How did you make that one?” “Can you make a big number without pressing a lot of buttons?” Kids love calculators so you shouldn’t have too much trouble getting them to play around with them!

Grab everyone’s attention and let learners share with the group some of their favorite things they found while playing. Then ask, “Did anyone try 9 divided by 99?”. Write it on the board (as a fraction and with the divided by sign to show the equivalence) and give the learners a chance to spontaneously try it out. Notice and reflect the excitement at the super cool repeating decimal! “Wow! How neat is that?!”

Curiosity and playfulness are both in place – time for some structure! Pass out the circles and fraction cards, as shown in the image. Every group of learners should have all the fractions I suggested. The hope is that learners will relish the chance to try out these division problems on their calculators and sort them into the circles.

If they notice patterns, give praise and ask follow up questions. Most importantly, don’t forget to have fun. We are doing math, after all!

If you try this lesson please let me know how it went! Also, if you create some print-outs for this activity, please share them with the community and let me know!