Scripture: Genesis 21-23
Learning Objectives:
- Students will review the story of Abraham, God’s Promises and Isaac.
- Students will learn Abraham one of the reasons there may have been conflict between Sarah and Hagar was because of the inheritance.
- Students will learn/review how to multiply fractions by whole numbers to find how many items are in a fraction of a set of items.
- Students will participate in an activity to practice multiplying fractions and whole numbers to discover how many items are in a fraction of a set of items.
Guiding Question: How many items would you receive if you were given a fraction of a set of items?
Materials: large numbers of an item, sheet of problems multiplying a fraction by a whole number (the whole numbers can vary and don’t have to equal the total number of items they are given)
Procedure: Review the story of Abraham focusing especially on the story of Hagar and Ishmael being cast out. Discuss with the students how Sarah may have been upset partially because she was concerned Isaac would get less of an inheritance if Ishmael were there. Show students how if Abraham had one hundred sheep, but Isaac got only ½ of those sheep because of Ishmael, he would get only fifty sheep. Then tell students, usually Isaac would have been given ⅔ and Ishmael ⅓ (Note:Isaac as the son of the first wife, would get the older son’s portion instead of Ishmael.) of the inheritance.
Show them how to multiply and discover the number of sheep received by each. Give each student a set of items and the sheet of problems. Have them complete the sheet using multiplication and then check their answers using the items.
Additional Questions:
- Why do we say we are dividing a group of items in half, but then use multiplication to find the actual answer?
Supplemental Activity: Have more advanced students research multiplication and division of fractions to get a better understanding of why we may say divide, but then actually multiply to find an answer. Encourage them to find an easy way to help other students remember when to divide or multiply with fractions.