Isn't it crazy how our kiddos are taught to share for five years or more, but when we introduce fractions as a "fair share" of a group, some of them look at us like it's a totally new concept to them?
They seem to have a good basis for starting to learn about fractions from seeing pizzas and birthday cakes be cut and shared ...and of course visually measuring each piece down to the millimeter to be sure that it's been cut fairly!
A favorite way to introduce fractions as "fair share" is by reading Pat Hutchins' The Doorbell Rang.
I'd usually read it aloud one day, and then the next day have a math/lit lesson. We'd reread or retell the story as we sat in a circle on the floor, acting out the sharing using pennies as the cookies. One year, I had the perfect number of students for this story - yes, twelve, don't shoot me! It was a literacy intervention class. So that year, we used real cookies to act out the story. Then, after the lesson, we crumbled the overly-handled ones, threw them out for the birds to enjoy, and ate some fresh ones to celebrate our success with fractions.
When you move on to abstract representations of fractions, here's a free set of cards and a game board for you to use with a small group or in a center. There are cards like these for ten different fractions.
Click on any of the pictures to download it!
Happy Teaching!
That is a great idea. Anything visual helps in grasping what would be a very abstract concept otherwise. Good luck with this. (deeprivervisions at Classroom Freebies)
ReplyDeleteThanks for including fractions for a group of objects! We're working on fractions now, so this will be really helpful. :)
ReplyDeleteKarli
Creating a Thoughtful Classroom