More Fractions!

On Monday I got out some play dough and shaped it into squares to represent brownies. Then we worked together to figure out how we could cut each "brownie" into fractions, such as fourths, sixths, and fifths. As students worked, I asked them to put into words the strategies they were using. At the end, the students agreed that it was easier to cut the "brownie" into an even number of pieces, as they could start by cutting it in half. Fifths proved the most difficult.

Then we learned the game Uncover from Marilyn Burn's About Teaching Mathematics: A K-8 Resource. It is the opposite of the game Cover Up which we learned a couple of weeks ago. This time we started with our whole piece covered by the two half pieces. We rolled the fraction cube to see which piece we could remove. Students had a choice on each turn of removing the piece that represented the fraction they rolled, trading one of their pieces in for equivalent pieces (e.g. trading a half in for a fourth and two eighths,) or passing.

Fraction Games

We have several board games in our classroom that focus on fractions: Frog Pond Fractions (by Trend Enterprises, Inc.,) Auntie Pasta's Fraction Game (by Learning Resources,) and Pie in the Sky (by Learning Resources.) Now that we are working on fractions in math group, the games are on our math group shelves and are one of the choices that students may make at "math choice" time, when they have finished their group work for the day.

Fractions

We have been exploring fractions lately. We started out cutting up an apple and talking about what fraction of the apple the pieces were. The students were able to recognize that two parts needed to be equal for them to be halves, and so forth. We also worked with blackberries to begin talking about fractions of a group of things. The additional value of these materials was that we could eat them when we finished.
We went on to make fraction kits, an activity from Marilyn Burn's About Teaching Mathematics: A K-8 Resource. In the activity, the students cut identically sized and multi-colored strips of paper up different ways. First they cut one in half and label each piece 1/2. The next strip is cut in 4 equal pieces and labeled appropriately. By the time we get to the fifth piece, the children have cut and written a lot. They are worried that they will need to cut this piece into 32 pieces, so they are relieved that this piece stays intact to represent 1 or 1/1.

After we made our fraction kits, we learned the game Cover Up, in which they roll a fraction cube to get pieces to cover the whole piece. On Friday we used the kits to explore equivalent fractions as well as how fractions add together. Later we will learn the game Uncover. It is a great hands on activity.

More Fractions

One fraction activity that I particularly love with this age is one I take from Marilyn Burn's About Teaching Mathematics: A K-8 Resource. In the activity, the students make fraction kits, cutting identically sized and multi-colored strips of paper up different ways. First they cut one in half and label each piece 1/2. The next strip is cut in 4 equal pieces and labeled appropriately. By the time we get to the fifth piece, the children have cut and written a lot. They are worried that they will need to cut this piece into 32 pieces, so they are relieved that this piece stays intact to represent 1 or 1/1.

Last week we made our fraction kits and learned the game Cover Up, in which they roll a fraction cube to get pieces to cover the whole piece. Later this week we will learn the game Uncover. We will also use the kits to explore how fractions add together and equivalent fractions. It is a great hands on activity.

Fractions

This week I pulled out several board games we have that use fractions. As we looked at them, we discussed what fractions actually are. Students often say they do not know what fractions are. Yet if you ask them to give you half of something they can do it. The gap is between the abstract idea of fractions and their experiential understanding of the world. So part of what we work on is bridging that gap, using manipulatives and talking about what they represent.

Today we used frog counters in two colors to represent fractional parts of groups of objects. If you have 6 frogs and half of them are red, what does that look like? Students made groupings that fit the fraction given and worked on writing the fraction. Can you show what it looks like if one third of them are a given color? Is there another fraction name that would represent the same amount? Some quickly came to 2/6, while others got help from a partner to figure it out.