For the past 2 years, I have been teaching grades in which understanding fractions has been vital. In 5th grade, students must begin to multiply and divide fractions and in 4th, students must understand equivalent fractions and adding and subtracting fractions as well as how to change them between mixed numbers and improper fractions.
The last 2 years, I have made fraction strips with my students and although they have turned out well, they were never used as much as I would have liked. They were individual strips of colored paper and after being cut up, I found twelfths all over the classroom floor for the next few months. They were too much of a pain to pull out regularly without having to deal with the management of it all. Finding equivalent fractions was also a challenge since you first had to pull out the fractions and then line them up perfectly in order to see the equivalent fractions which was not something that was simple and quick to do and students rarely made this connection without me first pointing it out to them.
This year, although I was very excited to get to the fraction portion of the math curriculum, I was dreading the making of fraction strips. Until I remembered a pin I had pinned on my Pinterest board back at the beginning of the school year. After reviewing this teachers idea, I made something of my own. Using a foldable concept that I had used before this school year, I make fraction strips that were stapled together at the top. (Step by step directions can be found at the end of this post:)
With the help of my resourceful father, we whipped up 33 of these blank fraction books in just an hour one Saturday. Once at school, the class and I went through the process of measuring the length of each page (the "whole" which so happened to be a nice even 12 inches;) and then dividing that whole into halves, thirds, fourths, sixths, eighths and twelfths.
Not only were students able to see that fractions are equal parts of a whole piece of paper but we were also able to begin practicing finding a fraction of a number (12 inches) with each fraction that we made!
After labeling each fraction in word form and fraction form, we began counting the fractions and I modeled the correct mathematical language and labeled the fractions as I counted (¼, 2/4, ¾, 4/4).
Before we even got to making sixths, students were noticing that ½ was equal to 2/4! Equivalent fractions baby! I introduced the term "equivalent fractions" and by the time we were done making our new fraction strips, students had come up with a whole bunch of equivalent fraction pairs and sets!
The last 2 years, I have made fraction strips with my students and although they have turned out well, they were never used as much as I would have liked. They were individual strips of colored paper and after being cut up, I found twelfths all over the classroom floor for the next few months. They were too much of a pain to pull out regularly without having to deal with the management of it all. Finding equivalent fractions was also a challenge since you first had to pull out the fractions and then line them up perfectly in order to see the equivalent fractions which was not something that was simple and quick to do and students rarely made this connection without me first pointing it out to them.
This year, although I was very excited to get to the fraction portion of the math curriculum, I was dreading the making of fraction strips. Until I remembered a pin I had pinned on my Pinterest board back at the beginning of the school year. After reviewing this teachers idea, I made something of my own. Using a foldable concept that I had used before this school year, I make fraction strips that were stapled together at the top. (Step by step directions can be found at the end of this post:)
With the help of my resourceful father, we whipped up 33 of these blank fraction books in just an hour one Saturday. Once at school, the class and I went through the process of measuring the length of each page (the "whole" which so happened to be a nice even 12 inches;) and then dividing that whole into halves, thirds, fourths, sixths, eighths and twelfths.
Not only were students able to see that fractions are equal parts of a whole piece of paper but we were also able to begin practicing finding a fraction of a number (12 inches) with each fraction that we made!
What is ⅓ of 12"?
12" ÷ 3 = 4"
So each third was 4" long!
After labeling each fraction in word form and fraction form, we began counting the fractions and I modeled the correct mathematical language and labeled the fractions as I counted (¼, 2/4, ¾, 4/4).
Before we even got to making sixths, students were noticing that ½ was equal to 2/4! Equivalent fractions baby! I introduced the term "equivalent fractions" and by the time we were done making our new fraction strips, students had come up with a whole bunch of equivalent fraction pairs and sets!
How To:
- Find colored construction paper that is at least 12" wide and chose the colors you wish to use.
- Cut the first strip of paper 2" tall (this will be the first fraction strip and will represent 1 whole).
- Cut each consecutive strip of paper a ¼" thicker than the one before it.
- Stack and staple across the top!
No comments:
Post a Comment