Introduction Lesson for Fractions

Today Mrs Hyde came into P3 and taught an introductory lesson for fractions.

This was an area that I wanted to observe a senior teacher teach. 

The students really enjoyed this lesson and I was able to see who was capable of imaging and how had sound fractions knowledge. 

_______________________________________________________________________________________

WALT - Find fractions of lengths to see that fractions are equal parts of one, that fractions can be bigger than one, that fractions can be equivalent.

Teacher

Students

• Fold your arms if you know what this is ¼
• Fold your arms if you know how to say ⅓
• Discussed how to say ¼, ½, ⅓, ⅕, ⅙
• Discussed how ⅕ and ⅙ have the ‘th’ sound at the end
• Diagram of ½
• Discussed how you cut when you have to share with a sibling
• Discussed what would change if your sibling had to choose the piece
• Discussed that halves are equal pieces
• “What is important when dealing with fractions, you are going to make sure the pieces are always equal”
• Highlighted the word equal in the WALT
• Diagram showing thirds - “which diagram shows thirds?”, students correctly identified which one was thirds and were able to discuss that it was because they were all equal
• Discuss what is wrong with the next diagram.

• “One piece is a half and the other side is a half that is cut into halves making each half ¼”
• Students handed three hexagons (hexagons because they are easier to cut than circles)
• “These are large chocolate chip cookies, I am mum and I have given you three biscuits, I want you to share them, I want you to show me how you would solve the problem of sharing three biscuits with two people”
• Have students share how they solved the problem
• “We halved one biscuit and then we had one whole biscuit each so we then had 1 and half biscuits each” - Drew a diagram of these on the board and explain strategy
• Did anyone solve this a different way?
• “We did three halves each” - “So you cut them all up and had three halves each” - “Is that the same as the strategy above” - “Yes” - “There are two ways I can write that” - “Is 1 ½ the same as 3/2” - “Who thinks they are the same? Who is not sure? Lets test it”
• Uses the biscuits and overlaps them to show that they are the same.
• “I can say the 1 ½ is the same as 3 halves”

• Join up with another group - now in groups of 4
• Each group has to show that they have three wholes and discard the rest
• Teach check that each group as three wholes
• “Now show me how you would divide those three biscuits between four of you”
• “How many people knew straight away they weren't going to get a whole biscuit?”

• “Each person got a half and a half of a half”
• “Who knows what that is?”
• “I have 2/4 and ¼ - Who knows what that is?”
• “3/4”
• “What is ¾ the same as?”
• “1/2 + ¼ or 2/4 and ¼”
• Need four wholes in front of the group of four
• “Mum gave you four biscuits but you hate these ones so now you need to share four biscuits between three of you”
• Lots of class/group discussion happening
• Teacher walking around making sure students understands its four shared between three and prompts them by saying how are you going to do that?
• “Were you going to have less than a biscuit each or more than a biscuit each?”
• “Less than a biscuit”
• “We had one whole and then one left”
• “I am going to draw this one so I can follow your strategy”
• “The three people got one each and then the last biscuit we cut into thirds”
• “Was there an easy way to cut this in thirds?”
• “If you folded your hexagon like this then you can cut it easily into thirds”
• “What did you get each?”
• “1 whole and a third”
• Teach write up how this fraction looks and discuss
• “Did anybody do it a different way?”
• “We cut our third differently”
• “Did anybody cut the whole lot into thirds? If you had done this how many thirds would you have ended up with?”
• “6 thirds”
• “How many thirds would one be?”
• “Oh 4/3”
• “How many thirds in a whole?”
• “3”
• “What word in our walt shows ⅓ and 4/3”
• “Equivalent”
• “Can we have fractions that have a bigger number on the top?”
• Discussed parts and wholes
• “In your head, I have got two biscuits between three people, who can do that in their heads? If you can’t you can do it with the biscuits. As soon as you think you have a got it fold your arms”
• Students that can do this are imaging
• Asked people to explain their strategies, don’t want guesses want explanations
• Explain strategies
• “You have a half each and then have a half cut into three”

_______________________________________________________________________________________

P3 then went onto a link on 'Padlet' to reflect on their learning. This was the first time they have used padlet and I found it to be a very worthwhile reflection tool. 

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Next Steps:

1. Writing meaningful and useful reflections

2. Questions from Numeracy Project Book 7 (Assess understanding of today's lesson)

3. More fractions activities that are leading towards level 4 of the curriculum (adding fractions - 3/4 + 3/5).