Tried and Tested: Fraction Pies

Obviously, I love math materials.  Through the years, I’ve been collecting a few, just to give my boys’ learning a boost because hands-on math is totally rocks!  Now, I don’t usually give reviews because I have high standards LOL.  I’m frugal that’s why every cent I spend means a lot to me.  The cost must justify the quality of products. 

Anyway, I have two sets of fractions pies.  The first one is  the soft foam fraction pies from Singapore’s Learning Store which my cousin gave to me a few years ago.  I totally LOVE this.  The pies are huge, it’s the size of my hand, magnetic, sturdy, has a label, with bright colours and it comes with tub (with handle!).

Now, this year, I ordered another set from Learning Resources via Amazon.  I love Learning Resources! Most of my materials are from them, so I was expecting this fraction pies to be of equal  with the ones I got from Singapore.  BUT, I was tremendously disappointed.  When I opened it, I wanted to throw it right away into the bin LOL.  They are tiny plastic tiles and comes with a case that is sooo hard to open.  When I checked the pies, they  don’t have labels either so it is very difficult to identify each of them (unless you are so good in visual that you know that it’s 1/10 right away!).  Because the are so tiny, slippery and sharp on the edges, I couldn’t fit them back in the tiny case.  So I just packed them immediately, covered in newspaper (so no one will get hurt due to sharp edges) and kept them in the storage.  I wonder when will it see the light of day.

See the size difference? And just look at the containers.  I swear, the ones from Singapore are much more cheaper!

And here’s the side.  The pieces are so thin! So hard to put back together 

I couldn’t find the EXACT product our foam pies in Amazon but here are the ones I saw closest to it:

• Foam Fraction Pies Teacher Created Resources.  A little bit small, but they are made of foam and affordable.
• Educational Insights Foam Magnetic Circles.  The pies are big, according to Amazon, “Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 10.3 x 2.4 inches ; 2.5 pounds”
• Lakeshore Learning Giant Magnetic Fraction Circles and Bars.  The circle is “5 3/4"

And that’s about it!  Watch out for my fraction activity… will try to create learning materials and share it with you. 

Have a good day everyone

FREE Multiplication Booklets

We are currently using these multiplication booklets with our Montessori Multiplication Bead Board.  There are three booklets:

Making Pizza with a Toddler

We’re rowing Little Nino’s Pizzeria  and Mavi requested that we should make a pizza.  So I asked him to create a list of ingredients he wanted to be in in pizza.  He wanted to make a pizza with lots of pepperoni and mozzarella, so that’s what we did!

And we just have to make Vito join or else we wouldn’t be able to accomplish this.

Watch this short video of how the boys, yes including Vito made pizzas!!

Playing with Colors and {Learn & Play Link Up #3}

Don’t you just love spring? The colors of the flowers brighten up my day.  The beauty of the cherry blossoms never ceases to give me a smile.  Reason why, in this week’s link up, I will talk about the things colors and the things that you can do with it, to see a mood.

Check out some of these fun activities from our previous link up that features the use of colors!

Featured posts for Playing with Colors this week:

Flower Water Tube Stamping by Montessori on Mars.  Wonderful activity for creating beautiful materials through color mixing using stamps!

Montessori-Inspired Color Activities for Toddlers from Living Montessori Now. A great way to introduce young children to colors.

Learning About Seasons from Planting Peas.  You will see how they use color variations to set the seasons.  Amazing!

Under the Sea Preschool Activities from Natural Beach Living.  I love the use of blue water beads to setup an ocean senosrial tub! The use of colors can definitely simulate a habitat!

Art Appreciation Activities from Every Start is Different. A compilation of art activities for kids!

This week on The Pinay Homeschooler, we create warm and cool colours! Mavi mentioned something like “It’s making summer and winter Mom.”

We are doing a lot of artworks at home.  Just the other day, we were looking at the masterpieces of famous artists like Monet and Van Gogh.  We talked about the techniques the artists used and how they set the mood of their paintings.  In particular, we talked about the colours they used during the daytime and night time.  In effect, we ended up talking about warm and cool colours which eventually brought us to this activity.

So Mavi and I practiced mixing paints to create our own warm and cool colours.  He was even more excited that we get to name our own colours!

Warm colours are colours of fire and sun, yellow and colour tones of red and orange.  Can you see the  names of his colours?  Yellow Golden Sun of Heavens and Lobster Bloody Red!

Cool colours are those of water, violet and colour tones of blue and green.  Love how he created his names:  Gods Light and Coral Sea Blue.

This is a simple activity that you can do with your kids anytime of the day! Less preparation but with much to learn.  Now with this knowledge, we can create paintings with proper mood settings! 

By the way, about the coloured tempera paints we are using. The brand is Gouache Liquide Tempera Paints. I am very particular with the paints we use at home because Mavi has asthma.  This brand has negligible smell and I love how strong and vivid the colours are.

So start making you colours now and have fun naming them!

Pin this for later! 

Welcome to the Learn & Play Link Party!

Now it’s time for this week’s link party! This is a BRAND new link up for all blog posts that include learn and play activities and hands-on education for kids. We are excited to read your blog posts and to see what you have to share! Please link up below and grab our button to display on your blog.

If you are a blogger, share your family friendly posts here. We are looking for things which include:

• Montessori Education
• Homeschool
• Sensory Play
• Tot and Preschool Trays
• Fine and Gross Motor Activities
• Kids in the Kitchen
• Healthy Recipes for Kids
• Arts and Crafts
• Natural Living
• Free Educational Printables
• Family-Oriented Activities
• Healthy Living

Your post will be featured on each of our blogs where we will pick our favourite posts every other week. That means there is more of a chance that you will be featured!

Everyone, please meet our link party hosts:

Christian Montessori Blog ~ Please visit our CMN FB group ~ Pinterest

Vanessa from Mama’s Happy Hive~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Jennifer from Study at Home Mama~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Marie from Child Led Life~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Jae from Pinay Homeschooler~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Heather from Golden Reflections Blog~FB~Pinterest~Instagram~Twitter

Renae from Every Star is Different~FB~Pinterest

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