Full House an Invitation to Fractions

Full House: An Invitation to Fractionsinvites young readers to see fractions in action in an age appropriate manner.

In an author statement Ms. Dodds states, "Fractions were always a bit difficult for me to understand." In this book, she sets out to demonstrate that even young children can start to see fractions as parts of wholes and recognize their number format. She takes the fear out of fractions by introducing them at a young age, helping parents and teachers to demonstrate there is no boogey man fraction monster. It is just another part of math in our environment.

The story she weaves to help teach fractions is about Miss Bloom who runs the Strawberry Inn with six rooms including her own. She is hopeful of filling the Inn and as each guest arrives the readers are shown the fraction of rooms that are now filled. When the final guest arrives, the reader is shown how 6/6 is equal to one whole because the whole Inn is full. A final fraction story emerges regarding Miss Bloom's cake when the guests get hungry in the middle of the night and only leave her 1/6 the of the cake for herself.

I think this is another great book for introducing math concepts early in an age appropriate manner. I do not expect children to grasp fractions after reading this or any other children's picture book. However, it does plant a seed. With additional exposure, children do start to build math concepts. Thus, fractions and other math topics are no longer great mysteries to be tackled in later years.