Identify and Write Fractions

Identify and Write Fractions

The book that I explored in was the Hands-on Standards for Grades 3 and 4. I would target the lesson to 4th grade. The manipulative that I chose is fraction circles, and is found on page 45 of the book. The title of the lesson is, "Identify and Write Fractions", and the topic is fractions and dividing the whole into smaller parts.

The students get into groups of 4 and are asked to solve the problem of finding out what fraction of a pizza William ate if the pizza was divided into six pieces. They lay out six sets of fraction circles and must find the circle that is divided into six sections. After they separate the circle with six pieces they are instructed to write a six on their paper and to draw a line over the six, this will be the denominator. Next they separate 2 pieces out of the six and it is explained that this will be the numerator of the fraction; the students are instructed to put the 2 on the top of the six and that becomes their fraction.

I chose the fraction circles because I wanted to explore a lesson with a manipulative in my bag, but one that we really did not get to cover in class. I like the fact that they are different colors. This gives you a chance to explore the pieces in the yellow set or the purple set and compare the pieces. I would use this lesson as a beginning lesson on fractions. I thought it was a good way for students to see that the whole circle can be broken in to several pieces but that the size of the circle does not change. Some students might think that as the numbers get bigger such as 2/10s that the whole pie will get bigger. After this lesson I would expand the use of the circles by having the students get out the one-third circle and replace a third with two smaller pieces so they can see that you can make the fraction smaller but they are part of a whole.

For lower-level learners I would have fewer circles to choose from and start with no more than four pieces. I would challenge the high level learners with larger pieces and ask them to write additional fractions or an equation. Later on I would use the fraction circles to show how to reduce fractions.