Use candy to show students how fractions apply in the real world. Take a candy bar and tell a story about how a family of four only has one candy bar to share between them. Ask the students how they might share the candy equally among all memebers of the family. When the students tell you to cut the candy bar into four equal pieces, cut the bar and hold up each separate piece, explaining that it is 1/4 of the total. Show them that by adding each of the four pieces together, you get a whole candy bar. Write on the board that 1/4+1/4+1/4+1/4 = 1 so they can see this concept in written form as well as a real life example.
Bake a pie and cut the pie into four equal slices. Explain that dividing a whole thing like a pie into four equal slices makes each slice a fraction, written like 1/4. Take one of the slices of pie and ask the children how many are left. When the say three tell them that this can be written as the fraction 3/4. Write the equation 4/4 - 1/4 = 3/4 and tell them they just figured out how to subtract fractions. Test their knowledge of fractions by bringing another pie into the room, dividing this one into three sections and taking away two. Write the equation 3/3 - 2/3 = ? on the board and see who can come up with the correct answer. Reward children who answer correctly with a piece of pie.
Help children memorize multiplication of fractions by using flashcards. Have each child write out ten different problems that he wants to use to stump his classmates. Make the lesson appropriate to age level by limiting how large the fractions can get. Pair the children together and have them drill each other using their flashcards. Pair two winners of each drill against each other until an overall winner is designated. Award the winner with a prize.
Have children participate in cooking to teach division of fractions. Start with a large recipe, for example, one that is made for 10 people. Tell the children you want to divide this recipe in half and ask them to do the math. Let them cook the final product as a reward. Each week, cook a different recipe, having them divide it into increasingly more difficult proportions, such as 1/3, 1/8 and 1/10.