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Number Trail Grade 5 / Week 09 / Thursday
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Week 09 · Fractions that resize

Thursday

The garden plan
// Scaling, fraction stories and sharing with unit fractions
⏱ about 15 min

Thursday: The garden plan

Chris the Coyote tips his feathered hat and opens his satchel.

"Gather close," he says. "This is the story of Rosie's garden plan."

"Rosie had a patch of ground 3/4 of a meter wide and 2/3 of a meter long."

"She wanted carrots in it, and beans in a bed 2 1/2 meters long."

"Bennie helped her measure every row with fractions."

"By sunset, every seed had a home," says Chris.

"Now you can solve the problems Rosie and Bennie solved that day."

Story: The carrot patch

The patch is 2/3 of a meter long and 3/4 of a meter wide.

Its area is 2/3 × 3/4 square meters.

Multiply the numerators: 2 × 3 = 6. Multiply the denominators: 3 × 4 = 12.

The area is 6/12 of a square meter, which is 1/2 of a square meter.

A whole split into 3 rows and 4 columns, 12 equal parts

Look at 2 of the 3 rows and 3 of the 4 columns.

Where they overlap, they make 6 of the 12 parts.

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE STORY
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
What is the area of the carrot patch in square meters?
Is the patch area more or less than 1 square meter?
2 1/2 × 3 = ?

More story problems

MULTIPLY FRACTIONS
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
1/2 × 3/4 = ?
2/5 × 1/3 = ?
3/4 × 2/3 = ?
5/6 × 3/5 = ?
SOLVE THE STORY
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
Rosie plants 3/4 of a row. Half of the planted part is carrots. What part of the row is carrots?
Each bean bed is 2 1/2 meters long. How long are 4 beds placed end to end?
Bennie has 3/8 of a bag of soil. He uses 2/3 of it. What part of the bag does he use?
Each watering can holds 1 1/4 liters. How many liters do 6 cans hold?
WHICH NUMBER SENTENCE FITS?
  • Read the question.
  • Tap your answer.
A ball of yarnRosie uses 1/3 of her 3/4 meter ribbon.
A potRosie shares 1/2 liter of water among 4 pots.
SentenceTrue or false?
2/3 × 3/4 = 1/2?
1/2 × 3/4 = 3/8?
2 1/2 × 4 = 9?
3/4 × 2/3 = 2/3 × 3/4?
WHY THIS EXERCISE2 1/2 × 4 is 10, not 9.
Try it
Find a rectangle at home, like a placemat or a book cover.
Fold a sheet of paper into 3 equal rows.
Then fold it into 4 equal columns.
Shade 2 rows and 3 columns where they overlap. What fraction is shaded?
On paper, draw Rosie's carrot patch as a grid and shade the carrots.

What a garden! Tomorrow Freddy has a fraction review game.

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