Ryan and Martin’s Fraction Adventure By Alli Smigel

Ryan The Rhino sits gazing at his bookshelf one day. He notices a flyer that tells about the sale that the local library is having on some of its books. He decides that he wants to fill up his bookshelf. His bookshelf holds 10 books and it is already half full. How many books would Ryan be able to buy at the book sale?

Ryan’s bookshelf is already ½ full. One- half of 10 is 5. Ryan already has 5 books on his bookshelf So how many books can Ryan buy at the book sale?

If you said 5 you are right! Ryan can buy 5 more books at the book sale!

I wish these kids wouldn’t drag mud through my house. Mom! I really want to fill up my bookshelf! And I only need 5 more books! Can you give me enough money for 5 more books? How much money do you think Ryan’s mom should give him? Well…I guess I can give you an advance on your allowance. How much do you think you will need?

Well the flyer said they would be really cheap. So I shouldn’t need that much. Well…if you spend ½ a dollar on each book do you think that would be enough? Do you think that would be enough money for Ryan?

First we should find out how much money ½ a dollar is. What kind of coins can we put together to make a dollar? $.25 $.05 $.01 $.10

If you said Quarters as one of the different coins, you are right. 1 dollar equals 4 quarters. ½ of 4 is 2. Now how much money is 2 quarters?

+ = $.50 $.25 If you said $.50 you are correct!

Now that we know that ½ a dollar is equal to 2 quarters or $.50 we can figure out how much 5 books would cost. 1 Book = 5 Books How many quarters are there total?

If we put all the Quarters together there are How many dollars is that?

10 quarters equals 2 dollars and 50 cents.

Ryan’s mom would be giving him $2.50. Here you go Ryan. $2.50 should buy you 5 new books for your bookshelf. Be safe!

Thanks Mom!!!

When Ryan Gets to the Book Sale, he sees his best friend Martin the Monkey. What’s up Martin!? I’m going to find 5 new books to fill up my bookshelf! Wanna help me find them? Sure! I am really good at picking out books!

As Ryan and Martin begin to look at the books, Ryan notices something different about the way they are priced. Can you tell what is different?

That’s because the prices are fractions of a dollar. See! Wait a second…all these prices look funny. I don’t see any dollar signs or anything that looks like money.

But fractions aren’t the same as money. Oh no…what am I going to do? Don’t worry Ryan we can change these fractions into money so that we can understand the prices better. Let’s look around and see what we can find.

Look Ryan! I found these two books. One for 35/100 of a dollar and one for ¼ a dollar! And I found these two! One for 9/10 of a dollar and one for ½ a dollar. Let’s figure out how much each costs.

Here are the 4 books Ryan and Martin chose. Can you help to turn all these fractions into money amounts?

What coin can we use to break up a dollar into 10 equal pieces?

If you said dimes you were right! 1 Dollar or $1.00 equals 10 dimes We want 9/10. How many dimes is that?

9/10 is 9 dimes! How much money is 9 dimes?

If you said 90 cents then you were right. $ = $.90 This book costs $.90

Do you remember what ½ a dollar equals?

If you remembered correctly, we used quarters last time to figure out how much ½ a dollar is What is ½ of 4? Now how much money is that?

That’s right…2 quarters equals 50 cents. This book costs $.50. = $.50

What are there 100 of in a dollar?

That’s right! Pennies! 100 pennies equals 1 dollar. The tag says 35/100. So how many pennies is that?

35/100 is 35 pennies! How much money is 1 penny worth?

Each penny is 1 cent. We have 35 pennies. $.01 X 35 = ? How much money is that?

Did you say 35 cents? You are right! = $.35

What coin can we use to break up a dollar into 4 equal pieces?

That’s right…we already know that $1.00 equals 4 quarters. =+++ ? How much is 1 Quarter worth?

1 quarter equals 25 cents. This book is only $.25! We’re doing awesome helping Ryan figure out these fractions. = $.25 =

Can you list the prices of all 4 of Ryan’s books? 9/10 of a dollar ¼ of a dollar ½ of a dollar 35/100 of a dollar How much would all these books cost together?

$.90 $.25 $.50 $.35 + _____________ 1 $ 2.00

How much money did Ryan start with? My mom gave me $2.50. And all these books cost $2.00. How much does Ryan have left?

I would have $.50 left for my last book! Let’s both look and see what we can find! Did you say that Ryan would have 50 cents left over?

Maybe we should split up… Good idea!

Hey Martin I found this one! It’s 5/20 of a dollar! And I found this one! It’s ¾ of dollar! Which one can I buy?

If you only had $.50 which one would you buy?

You can buy this one Ryan! And you will still have change left!

Did you choose the same one as Ryan and Martin?

Did you figure out that Ryan would have $.25 left over? How did you figure it out? = $.25

Here you go Ryan. Your change is $.25. You boys have a nice day! Thanks Terrence!!! Martin let’s go buy ice cream. Hopefully those prices won’t be in fractions. Haha. But if they are Ryan…we’re really good at this changing thing and we had really good help. We could do it!

THE END Would you be able to help Ryan and Martin again if they needed it? I bet you could!