Clay Creations: Multiplying Fractions

• The teacher will ask students to “think, pair, share” with others around them about what multiplying two fractions together truly does to the numbers. Is the product smaller or larger than the original fractions? Ask them why their answer is true. Allow them to draw pictures to justify their answers.
• Tell students to pull out their pencils and paper. The teacher will write the first example on the board: 1/2 x 1/2
• Instruct them to separate the ball of clay in half and set the other half aside.
• Next, they break the 1/2 piece into 2 halves.
• Now they will also break the other 1/2 piece into 2 halves but always keep these separate.
• Now, hold up one of the pieces and say to your class, "Hold up one of those pieces. What fraction of the total clay is that piece?"
• You say, "Let's write this down on our paper: one-half of one-half, or one-half times one-half equals one-fourth."
• Finally, have them put all the dough pieces together into one big ball.
• Instruct students to separate the ball of clay in half and set the other half aside.
• Next, the teacher will write 1/3 x 1/2 on the board for the next problem.
• Explain that when you take 1/3 of something, you will be separating the pieces into 3 pieces, because the denominator always tells you how many pieces, or groups, you’ll have.
• Next, they divide the 1/2 piece of dough into thirds.
• Once they’ve done that, instruct them to also break the other half into thirds
• Now ask, "What fraction of the whole are those three pieces?"
• Continue with other fractions as needed.

The teacher can tell students to create their own multiplication problem that includes factions. They will use clay to model and solve the problem.