ADDING FRACTIONS WITH THE SAME DENOMINATOR

1
ADDING FRACTIONS WITH THE SAME DENOMINATOR

2
Back to the Basics

• Hold up your right hand
• There are 5 fingers on your hand
• If you only hold up your thumb and index finger
  you are holding up 2 out of 5 fingers, or
  two-fifths (2/5) of your fingers on that hand.

3

• What changes if you hold up your middle finger
  along with your thumb and index finger?
• Your middle finger alone is one-fifth, or 1/5, of
  all the fingers on your hand
• By putting up your middle finger also you are
  adding 1/5 to 2/5
• 1/5 2/5

4

• Now that you have your thumb, index, and middle
  fingers held up, how many fingers out of five do
  you have up?
• 1/5 2/5 3/5
• One out of five plus two out of five makes three
  out of five.
• Remember that the denominators do not get added
  together when they are the same number - only the
  numerators do.