Fraction, Decimal, and Percent Puzzles (free printable)

Good golly, converting fractions to decimals and percents can be a challenge. To help our 10-year-old memorize some of the most common ones, I created a series of 3-piece puzzles that are self checking.

Download the 4-page PDF of the puzzles for free from Google Drive here.

Construction

I wanted my pieces to be thick so they'd stay together. In order to do this, I glued the printed puzzles onto thin sheets of craft foam (I recommend FOAMIES glue). I then glued various scrapbooking papers (a different design for each puzzle) on the back. Lastly, I used a exacto craft knife to cut the pieces out once the pieces were totally dried.

Truthfully, it was a pain. While I achieved my objective, if I had it to do all over again, I'd skip the craft foam and just glue the scrapbooking papers to the backs of the puzzles and maybe laminate (for durability). Cutting them out would be MUCH easier.

Play = Practice

I dumped them all number side up in front of my son and let him work through finding each 3-piece puzzle, matching 0.5, 1/2, and 50%, for example. When he thought he had all three pieces of a puzzle found, he turned them over to check that they all had the same paper on the back. Voila! That's the self-checking part.

The papers are necessary because not all the puzzles have different shaped pieces.

My son really loved this challenge!

Mars Math: Out-of-this-World Word Problems

Space exploration is fascinating. That's not an opinion, it's a fact. If you don't believe me, read up on future manned missions to Mars. It will blow your mind!

To bring science and math together, I made my son a book of word problems that test his subtraction, coordinate mapping, decimals, and multiplication skills. All the problems are related to Mars and future space exploration there.

The problems are a companion to an incredible book by Pascal Lee. It's been awhile since our 9-year-old loved a non-fiction book this much. His eyes were popping and his jaw was dropping and I couldn't stop him from interrupting storytime with our youngest because the facts were simply mind-boggling. I'd HIGHLY recommend you get a copy of Mission: Mars for any space-loving kid!

The book contains 9 pages of word problems, some that truly challenged my son who struggled with multiplying decimals (where's that decimal point go, Mom?). He was determined, though, and despite using a calculator for a few, he was beyond excited to get confirmation that his answers were right.

Here are a few of the problems you'll find in this free download.

Because of low gravity, you can leap 2.6 times higher on Mars than on Earth. If you jumped 3 feet on Earth, how many inches would that be on Mars?

Using radio signals to communicate with Earth, crew members will have to get used to a time delay. If there is a 22-minute delay between each comment, how long would the following conversation take.

"Hello, son!"

"Hi, Mom!"

"How's Mars?"

"It's dusty here. I miss you and Dad."

"We miss you too, son."

"Take care. We'll talk to you again soon."

"Okay. Bye!"

Calculate the AREA (length x width) of Valles Marineris, the giant crack on Mars. It's 2,500 miles (4,000 km) long and 120 miles (200 km) wide.

Get the PDF from Google Drive here.

3-Way Memory (Decimals Practice)

We played a fun decimals game this week with our 9-year-old. He's a whiz with numbers and this decimals challenge proved it.

I made 10 sets of cards, each with three cards in the set: a numerical decimal, the words for how you'd say the decimal, and a grid depiction of the decimal. There are also two other cards: YOUR TURN IS OVER. 

To make all of these cards, print the free 2-page PDF, print on heavyweight cardstock and if you're concerned the cards are see-through, glue a sheet of colored paper to the back before cutting out. Discard the two blank cards. Download the cards from Google Drive here.

How to Play
Shuffle the cards and put them all face down on the table in a grid. It won't be even, but don't sweat it. 

Player one turns over three cards. They're trying to match a set of three. If any of the two cards are part of the same set (e.g. the two-tenths grid and .2), they can remain flipped over. Other cards should be turned back face-down.

Player two now takes a turn, flipping over three other cards. If any one of the cards turned finishes a set already face up, they remove those three cards in the set from the playing area.

If a player turns over the YOUR TURN IS OVER card, play moves to the next player immediately. This card is turned back over and remains.

Play alternates between players, with more and more matched sets being completed. 

When the only two cards remaining are the YOUR TURN IS OVER cards, players can count their matched sets. The player with the most sets of three wins. 

This game isn't for kids who are new to decimals, but for those who are familiar with decimals, it's a great way to review. Not only do kids practice identifying decimals from a representative grid, but they also must understand place value, and know how to verbalize the decimal in word form.

Adding Decimals with a Visual Model

My 9-year-old son is a whiz at math. I wasn't sure though, how he'd do adding decimals. I thought I'd make it a little bit easier. Sometimes seeing and doing is understanding.

A simple 10x10 grid makes a wonderful visual model.

I made 10 grids with some of the squares filled in, and two grids without. Download them free from Google Drive here.

I printed the eight with colored blocks on heavyweight cardstock and cut them apart. Next, I laid a piece of acetate (an overhead projection transparent plastic sheet) over the top and with a ruler and fine-tip Sharpie marker, drew the grid.

Then I turned the paper over and laid it on top of one of the colored grids. I put the other colored grids underneath the first and tucked them all under the clip on a small clipboard.

With the addition of some fine-tip dry-erase markers, I was ready to teach my son to add decimals.

When my son came home from school, I added a second number with dry-erase ink to the acetate page to complete the math problem. My son then colored the white squares to represent the second decimal number and looked at the total number of colored squares, writing the answer in the blank rectangle to finish the equation.

This really clicked with my son and after four problems, he didn't need the visual model.

Don't have an acetate sheet? No sweat! Either laminate the cards (blank or colored) or place them inside a clear glossy plastic sheet protector. Both work with dry-erase markers.

This great idea was inspired by the visual models in the book Dazzling Decimals. Check it out!