Wednesday, January 21, 2015

More Fraction Fun~Unit Fractions and Decomposing

After our start of our fraction unit, we moved onto some key vocab and models.
http://kaitlyn-smiles.blogspot.com/search/label/fractions
First, the students got 6 different pieces of construction paper (all the same size) and were instructed to divide each into a different fractional amount.
We added them to our Math Notebooks by gluing in an envelope to hold them.
I had the students label each section, which led us into a discussion about what a unit fraction was and how to decompose a number and what it meant.

They next day, students got a purple rectangle and a green rectangle-which were different sizes.

I modeled what I wanted them to do, first folding my rectangle into equal parts, and then labeling the parts.

After I had labeled the parts, I glued it into my notebook, and showed them how to decompose my whole, and the different ways I could do it.
Then, I asked the students to do the same thing-but they had to do it with sixths or bigger.

I loved leaving it open, because the kids self-differentiated. My not as secure friends stuck with sixths and eighths, while my very secure friends went up to thirty-seconds!
At the bottom, I gave the kids two fractions to decompose two different ways without the use of models as a quick assessment...it let me know who got it and who didn't!

I then gave them a little bit longer assessment to see how much they retained and if they understood the concepts we've been learned so far.

We had to fix some misconceptions about equal parts :)


We're almost done fixing misconceptions about fractions and equal parts, and will be moving onto fractions of a set next...We'll see how that goes!!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn
http://www.theteacherstudio.com/

3 comments:

  1. Kaitlyn,

    These are fantastic strategies to help students! Thanks for sharing!

    -Ari

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  2. Love it! Thanks so much for linking up this month--and I love that your students are digging into my fraction unit. Thanks for the shout out! :)

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  3. We're all teaching fractions right now! :) This is a terrific visual; love the envelope with all the models! Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete

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