Rules for Fraction Concentration

Fraction Games

Rules for Fraction Concentration

1. Materials: Select the following Fraction Cards from those provided in the deck of numeral cards (or you may choose other pairs of equivalent fractions to use, but the equivalent fractions must be chosen in pairs so that all of the cards will have a ‘match’).

2. Purpose of Activity: To help student identify equivalent fractions and improve memory skills.

3. Directions: Game may be played by two to four players. Shuffle the cards and deal them face-down into four rows of five cards in each row. The player to the left of the dealer turns any two of the cards face-up in place. If the two cards show equivalent fractions, the player takes them. She then plays again. If the cards do not show equivalent fractions, they are turned, face-down, in the same places. The next player to the left then plays. The game ends when all of the cards have been paired. The winner is the player with the most pairs. Players who pay attention and remember the placements of the exposed cards have an advantage. The number of cards used can be varied.

Rules for Advanced Fraction Concentration

1. Materials: Use all of the Fraction Cards in the deck of numeral cards (or you may choose which pairs of equivalent fractions and mixed numeral/improper fraction pairs to use, but the fractions must be chosen in pairs so that all of the cards will have a ‘match’).

2. Purpose of Activity: To help students identify equivalent fractions smaller and larger than 1, to help students work back and forth between mixed numerals and improper fractions, and improve memory skills.

3. Directions: Game may be played by two to four players. Shuffle the cards and deal them face-down into rows and columns. The player to the left of the dealer turns any two of the cards face-up in place. If the two cards show equivalent fractions, the player takes them. She then plays again. If the cards do not show equivalent fractions, they are turned, face-down, in the same places. The next player to the left then plays. The game ends when all of the cards have been paired. The winner is the player with the most pairs. Players who pay attention and remember the placements of the exposed cards have an advantage. The number of cards used can be varied.

Fraction War

Purpose of Activity: To help student identify equivalent fractions and determine which of two fractions is larger.

Materials: Use the Fraction Numeral Cards (those that name fractions between and including 0 thru 1), a pencil and paper for each player to use for computation (if needed), one set of Dr. Loyd’s fraction kit.

Directions: The game may be played by two to four players. The deck is shuffled and dealt face down to the players in turn, until all the cards have been distributed. Each player keeps his or her cards face down in front of him. Each player turns his top card face up. The players must then decide which card shows the fraction having the greatest value. The students may use the equivalence chart, the fraction manipulatives, and scrap paper to do this. The player whose card has the fraction with the highest value takes all of the cards that were turned up and places them face down at the bottom of his pack of cards.

In the event of a tie (two equivalent fractions are turned up at the same time) a “war” is declared. Each of the players involved in the war places the next three cards from his pack face down. He turns over the fourth card. The person with the fraction of highest value now showing takes all the cards involved in the “war”. Play continues in a similar manner until one player has lost all his cards, or until time is called. In this latter case, the winner is the player with the most cards at the end of the time period.

Frack Jack (Adapted from an activity created by Mary Simon)

Materials:

• 4 sets of fractions circles
• Two decks of fraction numeral cards (use the 0/2, 1/2, 0/3, 1/3, 2/3, 0/4, ¼, 2/4, ¾, 0/6, 1/6, 2/6, 3/6, 4/6, 5/6, 0/8, 1/8, 2/8, 3/8, 4/8, 5/8, 6/8, 7/8 cards from each deck to create a deck of 46 cards)
• Scratch paper and pencils

Rules for Frack Jack

1. Pick a dealer.

2. The game plays in a similar manner to blackjack, except the object of the game is to get as close to 1 (or whole) as possible without going over.

3. Each player should have a white whole circle in front of them.

4. Place the fraction pieces in a pile in the center of the table for everyone to reach and use.

5. The dealer shuffles the cards and deals one card to each player face up.

6. Each player takes fraction pieces to model the fraction on their face up card.

7. Then the dealer asks each player if he/she wants to ‘Stick’ or ‘Hit me’. Stick means they don’t get another card and they are playing with the fraction they currently have showing. ‘Hit me’ means they receive another card and they must add that fraction piece to the one they already have showing. A player goes ‘Bust’ if his/her fraction pieces add up to more than a whole. If the players pieces exactly form a whole they get a ‘Frack Jack’.

8. This continues until all players are either Sticking, Bust, or have made a Frack Jack.

9. If no one goes Frack Jack, the player with the fraction sum closest to 1 wins the round.

10. Players start with 10 points.

If they go Bust they lose 3 points.

If they get a Frack Jack, they gain 5 points

If they win a round they get 2 points. If there is a tie for a round, the players split the round and get 1 point each.

(If your students have played this for a while with the fraction circles, switch to the Dr. Loyd’s fraction kits and add additional fraction numeral cards to the set for fifths, tenths, twelfths, and fifteenths.)