Students often learn how to solve proportion problems in school by memorizing the steps but are unable to use them to solve real life problems once they graduate. Children will have fun using food to figure out real problems. Tell students that the class is going to get a sundae after lunch. They will need to figure out how many scoops of ice cream and how many toppings are needed for each student to get two scoops of ice cream, three cherries and five nuts. The children will divide into three separate groups and set up proportion problems and solve. The team who solves their problem first will be awarded with an extra scoop of ice cream after the lesson.
Help students learn ratio and proportions by creating a Jeopardy game. Jeopardy starts with $100 questions and progresses to $500 dollar questions which are the most difficult. A $100 question may look like this: Bobby can ride his bike 24 miles to Centerville in two hours. If he rides at the same rate, how long will it take Bobby to ride his bike the 36 miles to Bloomfield? The students will set up a proportion problem and solve the equation. The child with the highest score will win a small prize or an award.
Children will race their cars to the finish line while solving proportions. The teacher will tape five 3-feet long strips of masking tape from one end of the room to the other and draw a black line to mark off every 3 inches. Give the students small metal cars and write a proportion problem on the board. Five students will race to solve the problem. The first child to solve it will move her car ahead 3 inches. Repeat until one car reaches the finish line. Problems may be written in word problem or fraction form depending on students' needs.
The Internet is the perfect tool for teaching math. There are a large variety of interactive proportion and ratio games available online. Children will love racing dirt bikes while playing Dirt Bike Proportions at Arcademic Skill Builders (arcademicskillbuilders.com), or take out invading space ships in Ratio Blaster. Visit My Math Games (mymathgames.com) to play a fun science proportion game with Dexter. There are many available that hold children's attention and make solving complex math problems fun, and easy.