Free Printable Multiplying Fractions Worksheets

About the Multiplying Fractions Worksheets

Start with How Multiplying Fractions Works. It shows 3 × 3/5 as three groups of three fifths on bars, then 1/3 × 4/5 as one third of four fifths on a square shaded two ways, where the part shaded twice is the answer. The rule follows, with one worked example for two fractions and one for a whole number, a note on why multiplying by a fraction less than 1 gives a smaller answer, and a warning about the usual mistakes: looking for a common denominator, or multiplying the bottom number by the whole number. Multiplying Fractions: Guided Practice then takes sixteen problems from pictures to count, to the rule set out in boxes, to mixed numbers and simplest form with less help.

Fourth graders meet fraction multiplication in its simplest form: a whole number times a fraction. It is repeated addition, the same idea as whole-number multiplication. 3 × 2/5 means 2/5 + 2/5 + 2/5, which is 6/5.

Multiply a Fraction by a Whole Number: Models starts with pictures. Each bar is one whole, cut into equal parts with some shaded, and the number of bars is the whole number. Children write the multiplication they see. The second half of the sheet is the idea underneath it: every fraction is a multiple of a unit fraction, so 5/4 is 5 × 1/4.

Multiply Fractions by Whole Numbers is the rule on its own: multiply the numerator, keep the denominator. The first twelve answers stay as fractions. The next eight are written as mixed numbers too, and each was chosen so the fraction part needs no simplifying.

In 5th grade both numbers can be fractions. Multiply Fractions: Area Models shows 2/3 × 1/2 as a square shaded two ways: the part shaded twice is the product. Multiply Fractions is the rule, numerators times numerators and denominators times denominators, and Multiply Mixed Numbers adds the step of changing to improper fractions first.

Multiplication as Scaling and Scaling with Bars and Stories are about size, not calculating. Multiplying by a number greater than 1 makes a number bigger, multiplying by a fraction less than 1 makes it smaller, and students decide which before they work anything out. For the next step, see dividing fractions.

The word problems are the kind the standard names: so much per batch, per lap or per guest, times a number of them. For the skills before this, see fractions worksheets, equivalent fractions and improper fractions and mixed numbers.