Fraction War!

(c) Lynette Long

Learn how to compare two fractions.

Materials

  • 58 Index cards
  • Magic marker

Game Preparation

Copy the following fractions on index cards. Write one fraction on each card.

1/1, �, 2/2, 1/3, 2/3, 3/3, �, 2/4, �, 4/4, 1/5, 2/5, 3/5, 4/5, 5/5, 1/6, 2/6, 3/6, 4/6, 5/6, 6/6, 1/8, 2/8, 3/8, 4/8, 5/8, 6/8, 7/8, 8/8, 1/9, 2/9, 3/9, 4/9, 5/9, 6/9, 7/9, 8/9, 9/9, 1/10, 2/10, 3/10, 4/10, 5/10, 6/10, 7/10, 8/10, 9/10, 10/10, 1/12, 2/12, 3/12, 4/12, 5/12, 6/12, 7/12, 8/12, 9/12, 10/12, 11/12, 12/12.

Game Rules

Play Fraction War the same way you play regular War with cards.

  1. Shuffle the index cards and deal out all the cards.
  2. Each player places his or her cards face down in a stack on the table.
  3. Each player turns over the top card of the table. The player with the largest fraction wins both cards.
  4. If both players turn over equivalent fractions, there is a "WAR."

Each player places three cards face down and turns over the next card in his or her pile. The player that turns over the highest card, wins all ten cards. The first player to win all ten cards wins the game.

Tips and Tricks

If you are not sure which fraction is larger, change both fractions to the same denominator. If two fractions have the same denominator, the fraction with the largest numerator is the largest.

Example: 2/ 5 and 3/5 both have the same denominator. Since 3 is greater than 2, 3/5 is larger than 2/5.

Or change one fraction so that both fractions have the same numerator. If two fractions have the same numerator, the fractions with the smallest denominator is larger.

Example: 1/3 and � have the same numerator, so 1/3 is larger since the denominator is smaller.

(This activity is reprinted with permission from: Long, Lynette, The Magical Math Series, Fabulous Fractions, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 2000.)

 


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