Books on Fractions
great for fraction lesson plans
Teachers often use manipulatives and other props when teaching fraction lesson plans, but picture books can be great math resources as well! Integrating both manipulatives and picture books into your fractions curriculum helps diversify lessons for different learners and helps all kids learn this subject! So many kids need extra help with fractions, and with all the different learning styles in your classroom, you'll need lots of different approaches in your fraction lesson plans. That's where math picture books come in handy. They bring fractions to life -- showing them in the world around us, showing equivalencies...
This page lists fun and educational children's books to use
in fraction lesson plans. Many can often be the basis for an entire lesson in and of
themselves. The list below of math books for kids includes links to buy from
Amazon. Or, save 50% with our
list of SALE math books.
best books for fraction lesson plans
with links to buy from Amazon
1. Wholey Cow: Fractions Are Fun
by Taryn Souder; illustrated by Tatjana Mai-Wyss
(Kindergarten - 2nd grade) With the guidance of a likeable cow, readers are guided in the basics of fractions, like parts of a group, parts of a whole... Each spread shows the cow in a different scenario and asks related fraction questions (ie: "What fraction of the cow is white?").
Written by an elementary math teacher, this book really does make fractions fun. Plus, the illustrations are adorable and enhance the fractions lesson beautifully.
To learn more about this book, click the link below. Please note that
if you purchase an item from Amazon, they give us a small referral fee.
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2. Pizza Counting
by Christina Dobson; illustrated by Matthew Holmes
(Kindergarten - 4th grade) If you are teaching fractions, it's a pretty safe bet that you are going to use slices of pizza as a real world application, right? Most teachers do. This is a fun resource for those lessons, as it present a number of uniquely decorated pizzas and pose corresponding math problems. Holmes illustrations are fabulous!
One negative of the book, however, is that it seems to lack a clear audience. It mixes easy fraction and addition problems (ie:1+2!) with more challenging fraction questions (ie: which is bigger--3/12 or 1/4). There is no clear audience for the whole book, but despite this negative, it's still useful for classroom use. Below are typical pages from inside this book. We like the crispness of the illustrations!
To learn more about this book, click the link below. Please note that
if you purchase an item from Amazon, they give us a small referral fee.
(This helps pay for site hosting costs.)
3. Fractions, Decimals, and Percents
by David Adler; illustrated by Edward Miller
(Grades 3-5) Using the setting of a county fair, this charmingly illustrated book shows how to change numbers from fractions to decimals, percents to fractions, etc... The writing and illustrations are clear and well explained. However, the book does cover a lot of ground, so is probably best used in segments for several different fraction lessons or used to review these concepts after they've already been taught.
Edward Miller's cute retro-style digital artwork is effective
in communicating the math being discussed. Kirkus Reviews called it
"both straightforward and bouncy, a
successful primer on parts." And Booklist
said it "offers a more
active approach to learning equivalents." :)
In the next sample spread, a child is buying cotton candy from a
vendor for 89 cents, and the text explains that 89 is a fraction of 100
as well as 89/100ths of a dollar. This is also supported by signage in the illustration.
To learn more about this book, click the link below. Please note that
if you purchase an item from Amazon, they give us a small referral fee.
(This helps pay for site hosting costs.)
4. Fraction Action by Loreen Leedy
(Kindergarten - 2nd grade) With the guidance of a likeable cow, readers are guided in the basics of fractions, like parts of a group, parts of a whole... Each spread shows the cow in a different scenario and asks related fraction questions (ie: "What fraction of the cow is white?")
Written by an elementary math teacher, this book really does make fractions fun. Plus, the illustrations are adorable and enhance the fractions lesson beautifully. School Library Journal called this book "appealing." We agree.
Below
are the first two
spreads from inside Fraction
Action. We've included these sample pages
in order to give you an idea of what the
illustrations look like and how math is integrated. As we mentioned in the book summary,
there's a
lot going on on each spread, but the math is solid and your students
will learn...IF you can make it work via using an Elmo or using the
book in small group settings.
To learn more about this book, click the link below. Please note that
if you purchase an item from Amazon, they give us a small referral fee.
(This helps pay for site hosting costs.)
5. Piece = Part = Portion
Fractions = Decimals = Percents by Scott Gifford; illustrated by Shmuel Thaler
(3rd grade - 5th grade) If you're looking for photographic representations of fractions, decimals, and percents, this book by Scott Gifford (an elementary school teacher) is a fantastic place to start!!! Double page spreads provide photographic examples showing how fractions, decimals, and percents are simply different ways to say the same things (ie: a photo showing one remaining can in a six pack is shown for 1/6th, .166, and/or 16.6% of cans).
This is a crucial math concept for kids to understand and internalize, and this book can really help. In their review, School Library Journal said: "The striking photography in this book will not only whet an occasional appetite, but also satisfy the need for a visual treatment of the topic."
Below are two sample pages from inside this helpful book. The sample page at right is actually the first page of the
book and it's fairly typical of the style in the books---although on
the remaining pages, the picture is on the right hand side and the
fraction, decimal, and percent is on the facing, left hand side page--just as in the pizza spread below.
To learn more about this book, click the link below. Please note that
if you purchase an item from Amazon, they give us a small referral fee.
(This helps pay for site hosting costs.)
6. Hershey's Milk Chocolate Fractions Book
by Jerry Pallotta; illustrated by Rob Bolster
(Kindergarten - 2nd grade) Hershey's bars are made up of 12 rectangles, making it a natural fit for learning fractions. Each spread has different amounts of chocolate rectangles and the corresponding fractions (shown as 'three-fourths' and '3/4'). Some illustrations also include cows, cocoa pods, and sugar cane, as they are also used to produce chocolate.
True, using chocolate bars as a math manipulative can be problematic! There's the cost, the sugar high, and the melting-chocolate-mess to consider. BUT... it can also be so much fun and you'll certainly have their attention. We buy 2-3 big bars and have the students watch us divide up the bars in concert with the book, then break them up into very small pieces to share afterward. (Check for food allergies ahead of time!)
Here's the first
segment
of Hershey's Milk Chocolate Fractions, showing that a whole
candy bar is 1/1 or 1. The candy bar is
then broken into its squares, and subsequent spreads show the fractions
involved.
To learn more about this book, click the link below. Please note that
if you purchase
an item from Amazon, they give us a small referral fee.
(This helps pay for site hosting costs.)
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