yes, it is why, you are right!

...my 3rd grader's homework today was to color in 1/2 of a bunch of shapes on one side of a worksheet and on the other side to fill in...either 1/2, 1/4 1/3 whatever it asked

I swear she's been doing this for a few years now. No wonder she rolled around on the rug making pained noises...LOL

They did 2 weeks, count 'em, 2 weeks of multiplication a couple of weeks ago. What did your son say when you told him about the ranking, does he understand?