Lesson 4 Situations About Multiplying Fractions

- Let’s solve problems about multiplying unit fractions.

Warm-up Number Talk: More Halving

Find the value each expression mentally.

$\frac{1}{2} \times \frac{1}{2}$
$\frac{1}{3} \times \frac{1}{2}$
$\frac{1}{4} \times \frac{1}{2}$
$\frac{1}{5} \times \frac{1}{2}$

Activity 1 The Park

A city is designing a park on a rectangular piece of land. $\frac{2}{3}$ of the park will be used for different sports. $\frac{1}{2}$ of the land set aside for sports will be soccer fields.

Draw a diagram of the situation.
Write a multiplication expression to represent the fraction of the park that will be soccer fields.
What fraction of the whole park will be soccer fields? Explain or show your reasoning.

Activity 2 A Different Park

Here is a diagram for a different park that Elena drew.

Rectangle. Length, 9 elevenths unit. Width, 5 eighths unit.

Which part of the park can be represented with the expression $\frac{3}{5} \times \frac{1}{2}$ ? Explain or show your reasoning.
Pick one of the other parts of the park and write a multiplication expression for the fraction of the park it represents.
Trade expressions with your partner and figure out which part of the park their expression represents. Be prepared to explain your reasoning.

Practice Problem

Problem 1

Write an expression for the shaded region of the square.
Explain how your expression matches the shaded region.