Math

Friendship Fractions
A unit on friendship provides an ideal time to introduce the concept of fractions! Follow the lessons below to create exciting concrete experiences:

Rules:

/2 /3 /4

one-half means one out of two equal parts one-third means one out of three equal parts one-fourth means one out of four equal parts

Lesson 1: Draw a circle on the chalkboard; add a wavy line around the edge to give the appearance of a pizza pie crust. Tell the class that you and (choose a students name) went to have a pizza. You are going to eat half and so is _________. Cut the pizza with a different color chalk, but do not cut it into equal halves. State that you are going to eat the bigger part, while _________ gets the smaller part. Ask the class if this is fair. Youll get a resounding, NO! Ask why. When students say that you are getting more, restate it by saying you and __________ are not getting equal parts. Activity 1: Using dry erase boards or sheets of white paper, ask students to Im one out of draw their own pizza. Draw another two equal pizza on the board and divide it in half parts! equally with a vertical line. Write 12 in one section of the pizza and say, I am going to eat one of the two equal parts. Repeat for the other half, replacing the Im one out of students name with yours. Ask the two equal students to cut their pizza into two parts, too! equal parts. Have students evaluate their halves. If not equal, ask them to try and cut it again. When all pizzas have been cut equally, have the students write 12 in one section while stating the same type of sentence you modeled. Repeat with the other side having them replace their name with a friends name. Repeat the activity, this time cutting the pizzas with a horizontal line through the middle. For further reinforcement, have students shade 12 of the pizza. Lesson 2: Review the concept of 12. Draw a rectangle (to represent a cracker) on the chalkboard. Explain that you want to share this cracker with yourself and three other students. Ask three students to come to the chalkboard. Divide the cracker into four unequal parts. Point to each part that you and the students will get, making sure that you get the largest part. Ask them if they think you are being fair. Again, youll get a resounding, NO! Ask why. This time they should be able to tell you it is because the cracker has not been divided into equal parts. Draw another rectangular-shaped cracker on the board and divide it into four equal parts. (continued on next page.)

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#274 Thematic UnitFriendship

Math

Friendship Fractions

(cont.)

Ask if the students think they will be getting equal parts now! Let the students return to their seats. Write 14 in the first section. State that you are going to be eating one out of four equal parts. Repeat with remaining sections, replacing students names with yours. Show other examples of four equal parts:

Activity 2: Divide the class into teams of four. Give each team four large graham crackers (the type where you can see the lines that divide the cracker into four sections) and a small tube of ready-made frosting. Have the teams notice that they have four whole crackers. Into how many sections is each cracker divided? Are the sections equal? To find out, carefully divide one of the crackers along the perforations. Give each team member one of these sections. Have them stack the four sections to see if they are equal. Then, have the team members lay their sections on top of one of the whole crackers to see if the parts form a whole. Once it has been determined that each child does have one of four equal parts of a whole, have the students use the frosting to label their parts with the fraction, 1/4. Repeat the process with the remaining crackers until each student has four cracker sections, each labeled 1/4. Have them arrange their sections as a whole cracker and enjoy them, one-fourth at a time.

Lesson 3: This lesson covers the concept of 1/3. This fraction can be a little more tricky to teach. Just remember to emphasize equal parts. Review the concepts of 1/2 and 1/4. Draw a square on the chalkboard. Pretend the square is a cookie and you want to share it with two other students. Divide unequally, then equally. Repeat the process with a triangular-shaped cookie stating that you will be eating one out of three equal parts. Activity 3: Divide the class into teams of three. Provide each team with three soft round chocolate chip cookies and small plastic knife. Have each team member cut his cookie into three equal parts. Students then trade one out of three equal parts three times so that they end up with a whole cookie again. Let everyone enjoy their triple good chocolate chip treat! Review or Test Time: Use the worksheet on the following page to determine which students have mastered the concepts of 1/2, 1 /3, and 1/4.
#274 Thematic UnitFriendship Teacher Created Resources, Inc.

Name _______________________________________________

Math

Friendly Fractions
1. Color each 1/2 brown. 2. Color each 1/3 yellow. 3. Color each 1/4 red.

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#274 Thematic UnitFriendship