EQUAL TO
How to use this in the classroom
Fracman is Pac-Man for equivalent fractions. The target fraction shows at the top; the maze contains pellets labelled with fractions. Eat only the equivalents — eat a non-equivalent and Fracman loses points or a life. Ghosts chase you, power pellets freeze them, the maze gets harder each wave.
Whole-class engagement break
Project the game and rotate students at the controls every 30 seconds. The whole class is watching, calling out which pellets are equivalent. Turns into shared fluency practice with the ghost-chase pressure keeping attention high.
Independent fluency station
Run as a 15-20 minute rotation in a fractions block. Year 4–6 students will happily play multiple rounds where they would resist a worksheet of the same equivalence reps.
Reward for finished work
Strong incentive for students to complete the main lesson quickly — 'finish your work and you can play Fracman'. The maths content of the reward keeps the time on task.
What it builds
Equivalent fraction recognition embedded in a high-stakes attention task. Kids have to identify equivalents while also dodging ghosts, planning maze routes, and managing power pellets. That cognitive load is what builds REAL fluency — the kind that survives when fractions show up inside a multi-step word problem.
Common misconceptions it surfaces
- Eating-on-instinct errors — Under ghost pressure, students sometimes eat the WRONG pellet — they recognised the numerator and went for it without checking the denominator. The life-loss feedback is more memorable than a teacher correction.
- Avoiding the equivalent — Students playing too cautiously avoid pellets they're unsure about. Walking the maze without eating reveals lack of confidence in equivalence — useful diagnostic.
- Decoy denominator confusion — When the maze contains 2/6 (equivalent to 1/3) AND 2/8 (not equivalent), students who confuse these are showing exactly the equivalence gap your next mini-lesson should target.
Differentiation
- Going slower: Set wave 1 only and let students play freely without time pressure. Builds confidence before the speed component kicks in.
- Going faster: Challenge students to complete wave 4+ where the maze is denser and the equivalents are harder to spot.
- Multi-game mode: Switch to Decimon (decimals) or Percentman (percentages) once Fracman is secure — same mechanic, different topic, transferable strategy.
Pairs well with
- Decimon — the decimal equivalence version
- Percentman — the percentage equivalence version
- Fracman LIVE — multiplayer classroom version with sabotage items