Hello,

Fractions and negative numbers bring a drastic change in thinking for the student. They have never seen a "number upon number" way of representing things. Similarly, negative numbers is an alien concept since they do not know what is "less than 0" . Their foundation is based on 1 apple, 2 apples and so on. Suddenly, we now have a -1, which cannot be seen. Hence the challenge.

Try and bring out real life applications of fractions and negative numbers to help your child. For example, negative numbers can be seen in distance, temperature, time etc. BrainX has several activities based on applications of negative numbers.

Similarly, fractions can be seen as part of a whole. For example, part of a building that is lit up, fraction of home that has been cleaned etc.

You can download some free samples of BrainX for appropriate class here.
http://schoolcountry.com/Brainx/Samples.aspx

BrainX is activity based math training program where each element of the course (as per the class syllabus) is addressed through real life applications or game. This way, students can relate to maths in real life and thus "see" it.

Hello

We can quote a few examples / situations here that you can use.
For negative numbers - it is important to first demonstrate what do negative numbers actually mean. Following situations might help
1. temperature - it is easy for students to appreciate that temperature can actually fall below 0.
2. Relative position on the map is something that can help them appreciate negative numbers. If Delhi is 0 and all things to west of Delhi are negative and to the east of Delhi are positive numbers. Use this situation to help start addition and subtraction of negative numbers. Do not use the words "add" or "subtract". Ensure that the situation is such that they have to do addition and subtraction operations.

Fractions
Please explore our basic fraction sheets for class 3 to clarify the concept of fractions. We have used several real life situations that can be shown as fractions e.g. building lighting, fuel gauge, gas cylinder etc and demonstrated them through pictures. This will help form a base and then you can move to class 5 and class 6 level topics gradually.