I need help with my sons 4th grade math homework

Amber09

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Oh lordy..I dont remember math being this confusing. Before I start, I am horrible at math so please excuse my small math brain lol I am attaching his homework sheet and we are needing help in how to do the top part. I need to be able to explain to him how to do it as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated
 

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The assignment is already done. Apparently, the concept was well-understood, but the worksheet wasn't.

Given a fraction, the idea is to produce one equivalent fraction, apparently by inspection, and then produce another equivalent fraction more mechanically. I believe the boxes should look something like this:

[math]\dfrac{1}{3} = \dfrac{2}{6}\cdot\dfrac{5}{5} = \dfrac{10}{30}[/math]
See how the middle shaded boxes (5/5) are used to produce the second equivalent fraction in the third shaded boxes? You just skipped the 5/5 idea and jumped straight to the second equivalent fraction. The 2/6 just fell from the sky, I guess.
 
The assignment is already done. Apparently, the concept was well-understood, but the worksheet wasn't.

Given a fraction, the idea is to produce one equivalent fraction, apparently by inspection, and then produce another equivalent fraction more mechanically. I believe the boxes should look something like this:

[math]\dfrac{1}{3} = \dfrac{2}{6}\cdot\dfrac{5}{5} = \dfrac{10}{30}[/math]
See how the middle shaded boxes (5/5) are used to produce the second equivalent fraction in the third shaded boxes? You just skipped the 5/5 idea and jumped straight to the second equivalent fraction. The 2/6 just fell from the sky, I guess.
He did complete what he thought was right by putting 2 equivalent fractions to the fraction that was provided. He is not sure how to get the last fraction after the equal sign. All the instructions say is write 2 equivalent fractions and doesnt explain anything else. He was confused.
 
I think the intent is just a little different from what tkhunny suggested.

There are three lines in each problem. The first two are supposed to be where you create the two requested equivalent fractions; the first might be like this:

[MATH]\dfrac{3}{6} = \dfrac{3}{6}\cdot\dfrac{2}{2} = \dfrac{6}{12}[/MATH]​

and the second might be

[MATH]\dfrac{3}{6} = \dfrac{3}{6}\cdot\dfrac{3}{3} = \dfrac{9}{18}[/MATH]​

Then the third line just summarizes the result, and would look just like what you wrote:

[MATH]\dfrac{3}{6} = \dfrac{6}{12} = \dfrac{9}{18}[/MATH]​

I agree that you have the concepts down well.
 
Yes, the concept is understood well but I do have one concern.
Your son wrote \(\displaystyle \dfrac{3}{6}\) = \(\displaystyle \dfrac{6}{12}\) * \(\displaystyle \dfrac{9}{18}\) which is NOT true
I am sure that your son meant to write \(\displaystyle \dfrac{3}{6}\) = \(\displaystyle \dfrac{6}{12}\) = \(\displaystyle \dfrac{9}{18}\)

The lesson here, and it is in my opinion a very important one, is that if you want to change the way something looks like then you multiply it by 1. Just understand that there are many ways to write one! \(\displaystyle 1\)=\(\displaystyle \frac {3}{3}\) = \(\displaystyle \frac {7}{7}\) = \(\displaystyle \frac {19}{19} ...\)

For example \(\displaystyle \frac {3}{6} = \frac {3}{6}*1 = \frac {3}{6}*\frac {2}{2} = \frac {6}{12}.\)
 
For the record, I was not fond of the "fell from the sky" theory. I failed to observe that there were three copies that started in the same place. Good call.
 
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I think the intent is just a little different from what tkhunny suggested.

There are three lines in each problem. The first two are supposed to be where you create the two requested equivalent fractions; the first might be like this:

[MATH]\dfrac{3}{6} = \dfrac{3}{6}\cdot\dfrac{2}{2} = \dfrac{6}{12}[/MATH]​

and the second might be

[MATH]\dfrac{3}{6} = \dfrac{3}{6}\cdot\dfrac{3}{3} = \dfrac{9}{18}[/MATH]​

Then the third line just summarizes the result, and would look just like what you wrote:

[MATH]\dfrac{3}{6} = \dfrac{6}{12} = \dfrac{9}{18}[/MATH]​

I agree that you have the concepts down well.
Thank you so very much, that explained it perfectly!
 
This is great! People in the forum are helping you. Sometimes, we can have math worksheets with answers that explain every step for you. I usually use Beestar to download math worksheets with answers, which I can easily assign extra homework for my son and I can do the grading with the provided answer. I think you can try it out.
 
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