The fraction kit

 

Durable color-coded, transparent pieces that can be placed on top of one another!

Dr Loyd's Fraction Kit

  • The Fraction Kit includes 67 color-coded, transparent plastic pieces from whole square units to fifteenths, including: singles, halves, thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths, eighths, tenths, twelfths and fifteenths.
  • Actually use and move these pieces to firmly establish the concepts of fractions and connect them to abstract, conventional symbols.
  • Visually models the concept of a least common denominator and each of the four fraction operations:
      • Addition
      • Subtraction
      • Multiplication
      • Division
  • The heavy-duty, color-tinted transparent material can be used on its own or with overhead projectors by instructors to utilize cooperative grouping and small-group instruction.

Why is Dr Loyd's Fraction Kit better than other products?

  • Beware of using the circle for initial instruction! 


Several websites and textbooks rely on circle diagrams as their initial model for learning fractions by using images of pizzas and pies. Although these objects are familiar, the shape of a circle is inferior for modeling fraction operations and will therefore serve as an inferior "imprint" for the student (an imprint is the model students will later rely on when facing novel or challenging questions).
  • Can't I just make my own out of construction paper? 
Instructions for making your own fraction kit make it look simple.  While making your own is better than nothing, Dr Loyd's Fraction Kit is made out of a color-tinted transparent plastic that allows students to place one piece on top of another piece and one piece as a fraction of another piece. Furthermore, as students will discover, one of the key fraction concepts will not be developed without transparent pieces.
 
Dr Loyd's Fraction Kit contains durable plastic pieces that are cut to a twenty-thousandth of an inch tolerance. This ensures the precision required to keep all of your fractions distinct. It takes very little margin of error to make 3/4 look like 4/5 when pieces are cut by hand. Don't let students make that kind of equivalence.
  • Some kits make the mistake of labeling their pieces. Don't make the same mistake -- fraction concepts need to be developed prior to using symbolism. Using symbolism before developing an understanding of fractions will encourage students to concentrate on manipulating digits. This results in an impoverished understanding of fractions.

Also included: the teacher's instruction manual

Dr Loyd's Fraction Kit also comes with a teacher's instruction manual which has been field-tested in countless workshops and classrooms. The manual is designed for instructors to teach students fractions with the fraction kit.  It will walk instructors through how to use the kit to: 

    • Name & rename fractions
    • Find and understand least common denominators
    • Perform addition of like, related and unrelated fractions; subtraction of fractions; multiplication of fractions; and division of fractions

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