I wanted to stop by and talk about some things we did this week in 3rd grade to learn about fractions. Now this is the first year that I've had quite the struggle teaching this topic because they no longer teach fractions in 2nd grade. So they come with very little knowledge about what a fraction even is. I used ALOT of manipulatives: fraction circles, counters, and bars just to name a few.
Fractions on a Number Line
One area the kids struggled with was fractions on a number line. We used fraction bars and sentence strips to practice creating a number line and identifying missing fractions on a number line. I modeled how to create a number line on the sentence strip using the whole fraction bar. Then we used the fraction pieces to divide each number line. Here are a couple of my kiddos in action:
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After they had gotten some practice with that, I created a number line on my sentence strip and they had to copy it and identify where a given fraction was located. Three whole number lines fit on each side of the sentence strip. The kids loved this so much that they wanted to wear their sentence strips as hats. Ha!
To do a final review of number lines, I took string and hung a 0 and 1 index card on each side. Then I had kids come up to the string and place their fraction where they thought it belonged. This led to some great discussions about placement and equal parts.
Fractions Review
To review all the main fraction concepts they rotated through different fraction games. Most of them were from Lakeshore but I added my own game too. It's called Fraction Fortune. When I was explaining the directions and telling them that each team needed a banker, they were hooked. I had to settle them down to finish explaining the games because they were busy trying to figure out who the banker would be. They had a blast playing.
We ended our fractions unit on Valentine's Day Eve and I found the perfect activity! Nicole from All Things Apple in 2nd has a great fraction activity where the kids figure out fractions of a group using Hershey kisses and it's a freebie in her store! I placed a group of kisses in the bags and taped Nicole's labels inside. They had to turn over the bags and figure out the fraction of red, pink, and silver kisses. They recorded them on the sheet that comes with the activity which I printed on pink paper since it IS Valentine's and all. They were completely engaged and I gave them kisses to eat later because what fun would it be to work with chocolate and not eat it?!
This won't be the end of learning about fractions. We didn't spend as long as we should have on it. Our state test is only 17% fractions so my team decided to cover it but then return to it later in the year. We can go more in depth later on and not have the pressure of the test.
Thanks for reading! If you are interested in Fraction Fortune, just click on the picture below. Happy 3 Day Weekend!
Labels: Fractions, Math
