Fun with Fractions

Good morning and happy HUMP DAY, my friend!  It's Melissa from More Time 2 Teach here and I've decided to focus this post on a topic that is extremely difficult for our 3rd grade babies to understand... FRACTIONS! Besides elapsed time, fractions seems to be a topic that I find year after year, my students tend to struggle with. It is also one of the most important topics taught in elementary school.

Today I'm going to share with you a few tips that I've learned throughout the years as well as a few ways that you can have FUN WITH FRACTIONS. Ultimately, we want our students to understand that fractions are more than just "a number written on top of another number".

Tip #1:

When teaching students about fractions it is important that we try to stay away from simply presenting them with a set of rules to follow. Try to stay away from teaching them "tricks" such as "if the denominator gets bigger, the pieces get smaller". 

I know how hard this can be at times, trust me I'm guilty of it as well. Especially, when pressured to keep up with pacing guides or feeling rushed to cover a certain amount of material before testing time rolls around.

However, if we truly want our students to understand, we MUST NOT rush instruction.

Tip #2:

Before practicing with paper and pencil, students need to practice manipulating objects, shapes, and amounts. They need to explore a whole as being more than one. They need to use all kinds of manipulatives to explore fractions.

Tip #3:

It is also important for students to understand that NOT all fractions are created equal! This is actually one of the concepts that makes this topic complex. Not all 1/2's represent the same quantity. 

Take a look at the picture below where I had my students cut three different Tupperware lids in half using an Expo marker. This example clearly demonstrates that the size of a half changes depending on the whole.

Tip #4:

Students need to be exposed to solving various problems with fraction bars/strips. 

One of the activities I like to do with my class is to have students pick two dominoes that they will then convert into fractions. For example, in the picture below the domino on the left is used to represent 3/5 and the domino on the right shows 1/4. Students then line up the fractions bars and compare the two. 

Allow students plenty of time to explore with fractions bars. Remember they need this time in order to gain a better understanding of fractions.

Rather than teaching your students rules, allow them to come up with their own set of rules. Sometimes they might surprise you with they are able to discover on their own.

Tip #5:
When exploring fractions of a group, give students a group of something. In this case, I have a bunch of Little Pets that my daughter no longer uses. I like to use them to have my students solve real world problems such as...

 Raquelle has to share her 15 pets with 3 friends. If each of her friends will get 1/3 of the pets, how many pets will each friend get? 

If you don't have Little Pets no worries... counters, cubes, and even lima beans will work. I've used them all at one point or another. But I will tell you that these adorable little animals making learning about fractions so much more exciting for the kiddos!

Tip #6:
Don't forget to show your students various forms of the same fraction. Expose them to fraction bars that show fractions as rectangles... show them fractions of a circle...

show them fractions of a group such as the yellow dinosaurs below. You can even give your students a fraction and have THEM come up with as many different ways as possible to represent that fraction.

Tip #7:

Take your time when explaining fractions on a number line. This is one area where my students either seem to get it easily or tend to struggle .

Because of this confusion, I decided to create a visual model that would allow my students to manipulate segments on a number line. 

I used the following materials...

Using scissors, I had my students cut each colored straw in half. I then had them cut each half, in half again. This resulted in 4 red pieces and 4 blue pieces. Hence we had cut each straw into fourths.

Next, I had my students thread the blue straw through the black pipe cleaner. We then practiced counting each segment... 1/4, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4 or 1 whole straw. This activity can also be used to practice fractions greater than one... 5/4, 6/4, 7/4, 8/4 or 2 wholes.

After seeing each straw broken up into segments, I found that my students were able to make the connections between the fractions and the number line.

We continued practicing and used our white boards to recreate each number line. We then practiced labeling them correctly.

If you see that your students continue to struggle... don't give up! Continue to practice. Remind them that fractions is something that they are going to need in the real world whenever they want to cook, when they need to measure something, or when they need to share something with their friends. This is certainly a topic that they will continue to see over and over again!

I hope you've found this post helpful and have learned a few new ways to help make fractions fun in your classroom. How do you make learning about fractions fun? Do you have any great tips that you've learned along the way?