This winter/spring we've been doing a LOT with number multiples and conceptualizing multiplication and division. Last week my mind moved toward the inevitable: fractions. Although shivers go down my spine every time I think about fractions I'm still resolved to figure it all out for the sake of my seven year old, if not myself. It's been sitting in the back of my mind so I guess that's why this cover caught my eye and brought me to a dead stop.
Can you see it? Fractions and multiples!
And, a little further on, this beauty: an 8-star and some fractions!
What I really want to know is who designs these? I want that job. To see some other cool round things we found on a walk last spring, go read my post Channeling Tana Hoban: Juxtaposition Edition. Now that was one amazing day for circles!
Now I will never walk past a manhole cover the same way again. Once you have spent a season doing multiples and multiplication with your child, the world really does start volunteering math to you. I love your honesty about fractions giving you shivers — it is the kind of confession that makes the rest of us feel better about our own sticky spots. Full disclosure: I run the free tool site factorcalculator.org, and I think you are onto something important about how seeing fractions and multiples in a drain cover is the same muscle that finds factor trees in a drawing. Enjoy the circles; the 8-star down the block sounds glorious too.
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