When multiplying a fraction times a whole number, drawing pizzas can help a student visualize the math and better understand the underlying concept. Give students a problem such as 5/8 x 5. Ask them to draw five pizzas cut into eight slices each and color in five slices on each pizza. Count up the colored slices -- 25 -- and point out that this is the same as the numerator times the integer, 5 x 5 = 25. Explain that any whole number over one equals itself. So when you have to multiply a fraction times a whole number, you simply write the integer as itself over one. Then multiply the numerators times each other and the denominators times each other. Thus, 5/8 x 5/1 equals (5 x 5)/(8 x 1), giving you 25/8. Have the students draw five more eight-slice pizzas and color in 25 slices to illustrate that 25/8 equals 3 1/8 pizzas.
When both fractions are less than one, give a word problem such as "24 kids went to Disneyland over summer vacation. Three-fourths of them rode on Thunder Mountain. One-half of those also rode on Pirates of the Caribbean. How many kids rode on Pirates of the Caribbean?" Draw a four row by six column box grid for 24 total spaces representing the number of kids who visited Disneyland. Your first fraction tells you that 3/4 of the kids experienced Thunder Mountain, and each row represents 1/4 of the whole group, so color in three rows -- a total of 18 boxes. The second fraction tells you what part of this smaller group took the second ride as well, so color over 1/2 of the already colored boxes to find out that nine kids rode on both Thunder Mountain and Pirates. You can check your answer by multiplying the first fraction times 24 -- 3/4 x 24/1 equals (3x24)/(1x4) equals 72/4 equals 18. Then multiply 18 times 1/2 to get nine to match the first answer.
Math games are an effective way to make learners forget they are learning in the midst of the fun. Use a deck of cards with the face cards removed. One team draws four cards and arranges them in two fractions. Both teams must solve the problem, but if the opposing team gets the right answer, it gets to keep the cards. If not, the challenging team can take them if it has the right answer. If neither team is correct, according to a neutral referee, the cards go to the bottom of the pile and the second team takes a turn at challenger. Play continues until there are no more cards. The team with the most cards wins. Another option is to create a fraction Bingo game in which the caller calls out a fraction multiplication problem and the players have to solve the problem and place a token on their board if the answer appears there. The first player to get five across, down or diagonal (or blackout -- covering all spaces -- for an extra challenge) wins.
Kitchen math is both tasty and an excellent training ground for fractions. Give students a recipe such as the Think Quest website's Fraction Pretzels. Take out the 1 cup, 1 tsp. and 1 tbsp. from your measuring set, leaving them with only the fractional measures. Provide a kitchen measurements equivalents chart, and challenge them to measure all the ingredients accurately. For instance, the chart will tell them that 3 tsp. equal 1 tbsp., but they must figure out that 1/2 tsp. times 6 or 1/4 tsp. times 12 will also give them the correct measure. The test will be in the taste of the finished product as to whether they succeeded in calculating accurate measurements.