In my class, I like to introduce fractions by engaging my students in a story. I started my fractions unit this year on a Monday, so I gathered my students and told them I wanted to tell them about my weekend. My students know I like to hike, so I told them (very animatedly)
“This weekend, I was went hiking, and when I came home, I was hungry. I mean I was so hungry. Have any of you ever been so hungry you could eat a whole pizza by yourself? (Class said “Yes!) Well I was that hungry, I was sooooo hungry I was going to eat one whole pizza all by myself. So I ordered the pizza, and the delivery driver brought it. It smelt so good!” (I go into details about my favorite toppings etc and the students agree or name their own. Make sure your own story stays very interactive the whole time.) Then I drew a circle on the SMARTboard and say, “It looked like this. It was one whole pizza. I was just about to dig in, when DING DONG! The doorbell rings. It was my mom. (I like to have a special voice I use when I imitate characters) ‘Hi Honey! How are you sweetie? How was your hike? Do I smell pizza? Boy I could go for some pizza right now!” Now my Mom raised me to be polite, so I cut the pizza into two pieces.” (On the SMARTboard, I demonstrate cutting the pizza where one piece is very small and the other is very large. I point to the larger slice and say “That one is mine. Mom, you can have this piece. My mom says, ‘That’s not fair! The slices should be equal!’ She was right, so I cut my pizza right in half. She and I both have an equal amount now. Mom said, “Now our slices are equal. That is fair.” We are just about to dig in when DING DONG. It’s my sister, Sarah. (new character voice) ‘Hi Rachel! I was in the neighborhood and saw Mom’s car, so I decided to stop by and…wait…is that pizza?!”
I repeat cutting the pizza into three unequal slices on the SMARTboard, and my class says “That’s not fair! They should be equal!” I model three equal slices and talk about how each slice is called a third and is 1/3 of the pizza. I demonstrate counting each slice (“1/3, 2/3, 3/3. 3/3 is one whole.”)
I keep on adding characters, unfairly cutting the pizza, having students tell me “That’s not fair! They should be equal!” and modeling making equal parts and counting them in ‘fraction talk.’ I explain that fractions are a part of a whole, but they must be equal. Then I talk about how the number on top is the numerator. They can remember that because the NUmerator is the Number Up on top of the fraction. It is a part of the whole. We talk about how it can never be bigger than the Denominator (Down), because the denominator is the whole number of equal pieces it is divided into.
To complete our first lesson on fractions, I give students their own book, which has a very similar story line to mine. Students can read the story, but they get to insert their own characters to really make it their own. The story is interactive, and the students get their first practice working with fractions. (The reading specialist loves this lesson because it incorporates ELA into math.) When students are done, I let them partner up and read their unique stories to each other. I have this available as a lesson on TpT at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fraction-Class-Book-personalized-fun-learning-for-all-3NF-907309
“This weekend, I was went hiking, and when I came home, I was hungry. I mean I was so hungry. Have any of you ever been so hungry you could eat a whole pizza by yourself? (Class said “Yes!) Well I was that hungry, I was sooooo hungry I was going to eat one whole pizza all by myself. So I ordered the pizza, and the delivery driver brought it. It smelt so good!” (I go into details about my favorite toppings etc and the students agree or name their own. Make sure your own story stays very interactive the whole time.) Then I drew a circle on the SMARTboard and say, “It looked like this. It was one whole pizza. I was just about to dig in, when DING DONG! The doorbell rings. It was my mom. (I like to have a special voice I use when I imitate characters) ‘Hi Honey! How are you sweetie? How was your hike? Do I smell pizza? Boy I could go for some pizza right now!” Now my Mom raised me to be polite, so I cut the pizza into two pieces.” (On the SMARTboard, I demonstrate cutting the pizza where one piece is very small and the other is very large. I point to the larger slice and say “That one is mine. Mom, you can have this piece. My mom says, ‘That’s not fair! The slices should be equal!’ She was right, so I cut my pizza right in half. She and I both have an equal amount now. Mom said, “Now our slices are equal. That is fair.” We are just about to dig in when DING DONG. It’s my sister, Sarah. (new character voice) ‘Hi Rachel! I was in the neighborhood and saw Mom’s car, so I decided to stop by and…wait…is that pizza?!”
I repeat cutting the pizza into three unequal slices on the SMARTboard, and my class says “That’s not fair! They should be equal!” I model three equal slices and talk about how each slice is called a third and is 1/3 of the pizza. I demonstrate counting each slice (“1/3, 2/3, 3/3. 3/3 is one whole.”)
I keep on adding characters, unfairly cutting the pizza, having students tell me “That’s not fair! They should be equal!” and modeling making equal parts and counting them in ‘fraction talk.’ I explain that fractions are a part of a whole, but they must be equal. Then I talk about how the number on top is the numerator. They can remember that because the NUmerator is the Number Up on top of the fraction. It is a part of the whole. We talk about how it can never be bigger than the Denominator (Down), because the denominator is the whole number of equal pieces it is divided into.
To complete our first lesson on fractions, I give students their own book, which has a very similar story line to mine. Students can read the story, but they get to insert their own characters to really make it their own. The story is interactive, and the students get their first practice working with fractions. (The reading specialist loves this lesson because it incorporates ELA into math.) When students are done, I let them partner up and read their unique stories to each other. I have this available as a lesson on TpT at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fraction-Class-Book-personalized-fun-learning-for-all-3NF-907309
Once we have fractions introduced, I like for students to have the opportunity to think of times when they would need to know about fractions in “real life” and share ideas about why fractions are important to know and how they will use them. This helps to answer the “Why do we need to know this?” question, and students will value their learning more when they understand that it has implications beyond just a grade in math class.
In my class, we do math workshop rotations. Before the unit began, I gave students a pre-assessment to figure out what they know, and I grouped students accordingly. This way, I am able to cater my teaching to individual students needs easier. You can read exactly how I use math rotations, how I set them up and organize them, and what centers students go to each day at my blog at terrificteachings.weebly.org if you would like more information.
When we learn about fractions of a set, I like to have my students in my small group rotations have a dry erase board and a marker, as well as two sided counters. I tell the students stories involving fractions which are meaningful and relevant to students. For example one of my stories went along the lines of “In Coach Smith's gym class, the students had a dodgeball tournaments. There were two teams: the yellow team and the red team (students have red/yellow two sided counters). The students played a total of six games. The red team won two games. Use your counters to show this. Write a fraction using your counters.” We continue this until the students understand how to do fractions of a set, always reviewing and modeling correct math vocabulary. My high groups were able to catch on to this quickly and start creating their own stories for their peers to solve. My lower groups needed me to scaffold the stories and remind them that a fraction is part/whole and the part is on top, the whole is on bottom.
In my class, we do math workshop rotations. Before the unit began, I gave students a pre-assessment to figure out what they know, and I grouped students accordingly. This way, I am able to cater my teaching to individual students needs easier. You can read exactly how I use math rotations, how I set them up and organize them, and what centers students go to each day at my blog at terrificteachings.weebly.org if you would like more information.
When we learn about fractions of a set, I like to have my students in my small group rotations have a dry erase board and a marker, as well as two sided counters. I tell the students stories involving fractions which are meaningful and relevant to students. For example one of my stories went along the lines of “In Coach Smith's gym class, the students had a dodgeball tournaments. There were two teams: the yellow team and the red team (students have red/yellow two sided counters). The students played a total of six games. The red team won two games. Use your counters to show this. Write a fraction using your counters.” We continue this until the students understand how to do fractions of a set, always reviewing and modeling correct math vocabulary. My high groups were able to catch on to this quickly and start creating their own stories for their peers to solve. My lower groups needed me to scaffold the stories and remind them that a fraction is part/whole and the part is on top, the whole is on bottom.
At the “independent group” students were given construction paper which I had copied fraction circles on to. Students cut out the circles and cut them into the fractions. They kept all their fraction pieces in a baggie and were able to spend time manipulating them and putting them together. Students usually started by putting all the pieces labeled ¼ together (or 1/8, 1/6, etc) but would soon discover that they could combine fraction pieces in different ways to make a whole.
At the “hands-on/game” group, I taught students to play a pizza fraction game where they spin a spinner and have to try to guess which pizza slice matches that fraction. If they are correct, they can keep that slice. The first person to create a whole pizza wins. You can find this game online at Walmart I believe. Mine's been in my room for years. :)
At the “hands-on/game” group, I taught students to play a pizza fraction game where they spin a spinner and have to try to guess which pizza slice matches that fraction. If they are correct, they can keep that slice. The first person to create a whole pizza wins. You can find this game online at Walmart I believe. Mine's been in my room for years. :)
After students have a firm understanding of fractions of a set and how to write the numerator and denominator, we do a fun Fractions Sundae activity. I found this on TpT for free. It was posted by Amy Lemons and is available at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Make-A-Fraction-Sundae-193583 The students had a blast with this, but it was a bit of set up as far as copying onto all the different colored construction paper. Next time, I might consider cutting out all of the scoops beforehand to save time as well. Some of the kids got very focused on making their ice cream sundae very pretty, and I feel like they lost sight of the concept, so another thing I will do differently next time is to spend a lot of time focusing on the concepts while they are creating their sundae.
One really great free resource that I've found for fractions (and for CCSS math in general) is learnzillion.com. It is free to educators and students. It has many video clips (generally five minutes or less) that teach and illustrate tricky math concepts step-by-step for your visual/auditory learners. I sometimes use these clips as my “lesson introduction” to let students know what we will be focusing on in math rotations. There are over thirty high quality fraction lesson videos on this website, so it is definitely worth the time to check it out.
I believe that students should have ample time to experiment with an idea or concept in a hands-on way, so I always try to find high-quality manipulatives for my classroom. One thing that I really loved for fractions this year is the fraction bar set. I found it in School Specialty. My principal came in when my students were working with it and loved it so much she is buying me a whole class set for next year! This fraction bar set really helps students discover fractions concepts, especially when you are transitioning into equivalent fractions.
I believe that students should have ample time to experiment with an idea or concept in a hands-on way, so I always try to find high-quality manipulatives for my classroom. One thing that I really loved for fractions this year is the fraction bar set. I found it in School Specialty. My principal came in when my students were working with it and loved it so much she is buying me a whole class set for next year! This fraction bar set really helps students discover fractions concepts, especially when you are transitioning into equivalent fractions.
Basically, we working with fractions, I like to have a lot of hands-on exploration time with many relatable and engaging real-life story situations. For my formative assessments, I like to do quick and simple exit tickets. These may only be one or two questions and 1/3 of a page long, but they give me insight about where my students are. Some questions on the exit tickets that I have used are “Explain what the fraction ¼ means” and “Write and answer a story problem which includes a fraction of a set.”
On my Teachers Pay Teachers site, I have the “Is That Fair?” personalized fractions book. I also have Thanksgiving Fractions Task Cards. (I don't use them like typical task cards, I like to turn them into cooperative learning activities. I have included directions for how to use them in many engaging ways. I don't want you to feel like you should buy anything from me at all! I hope that you got a lot of great ideas about how to teach fractions in your room.
On my Teachers Pay Teachers site, I have the “Is That Fair?” personalized fractions book. I also have Thanksgiving Fractions Task Cards. (I don't use them like typical task cards, I like to turn them into cooperative learning activities. I have included directions for how to use them in many engaging ways. I don't want you to feel like you should buy anything from me at all! I hope that you got a lot of great ideas about how to teach fractions in your room.