Fractions can be fun! In fact, fractions can be a lot of fun if taught in a way that makes sense to students! What doesn't make sense about cookies? And what about when you have to share cookies?
Several weeks back I was asked by a third grade teacher to do some demo lessons with equivalent fractions. Challenge accepted! She began teaching equivalent fractions with my suggestion of using a problem involving a pan of brownies. It went something like this:
"Here is a brownie. (photo of brownie was shown to students) How could you share this brownie fairly with 2 people? With 4 people? With 8 people?"
The teacher said her students began to get the idea, and they could share the brownie equally with the specified number of people. So when I came in, we wanted to look at how these "pieces" of brownie could be equal to one another. Because the "brownie" had been exhausted, I decided to use "cookies" And our new math series, Investigations, had a nice pattern block lesson for equivalent fractions using the cookie idea.
Pattern blocks are a GREAT tool for introducing fractions because, students are already familiar with them (usually they begin using pattern blocks in Kindergarten), and they stack on top nicely so as to see the "equivalence" clearly.
We began this lesson by asking the essential question, "How many ways can we make 1 whole with unit fractions?" Since students already had the concept of unit fractions, we wanted to move them beyond that to see how unit fractions can be added to equal one whole, and then how other fractions can be added (with the same denominator) to equal one whole. For example, 1/4+1/4+1/4+1/4=4/4=1, and 1/4+3/4=4/4=1.
Several weeks back I was asked by a third grade teacher to do some demo lessons with equivalent fractions. Challenge accepted! She began teaching equivalent fractions with my suggestion of using a problem involving a pan of brownies. It went something like this:
"Here is a brownie. (photo of brownie was shown to students) How could you share this brownie fairly with 2 people? With 4 people? With 8 people?"
The teacher said her students began to get the idea, and they could share the brownie equally with the specified number of people. So when I came in, we wanted to look at how these "pieces" of brownie could be equal to one another. Because the "brownie" had been exhausted, I decided to use "cookies" And our new math series, Investigations, had a nice pattern block lesson for equivalent fractions using the cookie idea.
Pattern blocks are a GREAT tool for introducing fractions because, students are already familiar with them (usually they begin using pattern blocks in Kindergarten), and they stack on top nicely so as to see the "equivalence" clearly.
We began this lesson by asking the essential question, "How many ways can we make 1 whole with unit fractions?" Since students already had the concept of unit fractions, we wanted to move them beyond that to see how unit fractions can be added to equal one whole, and then how other fractions can be added (with the same denominator) to equal one whole. For example, 1/4+1/4+1/4+1/4=4/4=1, and 1/4+3/4=4/4=1.
So we asked this question to students next. Once they had "played" around with the pattern blocks to see how to make up one whole with multiple shapes, it became clear how to add different fractional parts, as well as demonstrating equivalent fractions.
Through this demo lesson, the teacher I was working with was able to see how important it is for students to have hands-on experiences as well as how simple it is to make math relevant for students and fun!
What lessons have you tried that helped students get a deep understanding of fractions?
What lessons have you tried that helped students get a deep understanding of fractions?