This week was pretty busy Math-wise (and otherwise!). I completely forgot to respond to a forum post AND a blog post for math class. Thankfully I just updated my agenda, and will not be making that mistake again!
Anyways, moving on.
In this week's class, we worked on the ever elusive, ever frustrating, fractions. To start the class, we had two presentations. The first presentation featured a neat folding trick! Not known for actually being good or accurate with folding, I'm happy to say that we were not marked on how talented we were. However, this folding trick was very easy to understand, and simple to demonstrate. The class folded the paper into halves, then shaded one half. Then, we folded it in quarters, and coloured in two quarters. What do you know!? They were equivalent fractions! (This led nicely into the next presentation) (Also, I will definitely be using this strategy in my own classroom!)
The next presentation included base ten blocks (my favourite manipulative!) and money. As a class, we were asked to see if we had enough money in our class fund for a new iPad! Each group was given their own envelope of base ten blocks, and was asked to count of how much money we had. We were taught about the hundredths and tenths columns, and were asked to correctly place our amount of money into the columns to see which group had "raised" the most, and so that we could count it as a class. In the end, I think we had enough for our class iPad, so that activity was a success!
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| As a music student, I feel your pain. I also have no money. (I'm also wishing stores took base ten blocks as payment.) |
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| Favourite word or phrase? ONE WHOLE CANDY BAR! |
We also made a chart of what we thought fractions were, or how they could be described. I haven't done anything with fractions in a long time, so my answers were a little...outside of the box. (Do I get points for creativity?)
By the end of the lesson, I felt hopeful. I wasn't as discombobulated as I thought I would be with my return to fractions, and that made me feel so great! I hope to use many of the concepts we learned with my own students. (Including solving fractions with the use of clocks! So many connections!)
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| When explaining fractions, I will always include examples with pizza. (Fractions are also NOT bananas). |
Next week, we will be taking a look at integers. Fingers crossed for that!
Until next week, Happy Math-ing!
Hi Erin
ReplyDeleteI think last week in class, we were given a multitude of positive and fun ways we can teach our future students about Fractions. It's not my favourite subject, but after seeing how many ways we can engage our students and have them be hands on in the lessons, I actually became a little more excited about this unit.
I can't wait to bring together fun lesson plans to start my students off on the right foot when it comes to Fractions. It seems like there are endless possibilities! Those flash cards were awesome! My elbow partner and I were playing War with the fraction cards, which I found to be quite fun. It pushed me to actually go home and google some other card games we can use for Fractions in the class.
I feel your stress on the busy front these days. It's tough to keep track of all the things to do, but think of it this way, if you have only made one mistake than you're in good shape! Plus, we are almost a quarter of the way done our first year!
Great blog post!
Hi Erin,
ReplyDeleteI too will be stealing the idea of using picture books alongside math, specifically "The Hershey's Milk Chocolate Fractions Book." This book is a great introductory resource, for any P/J/I grade, to lessen the anxiety that most students feel when approaching the daunting topic of fractions.
Additionally, I also enjoyed making equivalent fractions by folding and colouring pieces of paper. This can be successfully done using a variety of fractions, and demonstrates to students that equivalent fractions are different fractions that name the same number.
Have a great reading week!
-K
Hi Erin,
ReplyDeleteIn last week's class on fractions and decimals, I also really enjoyed the part of the lesson on making fractions from Hershey chocolate bars. The book, The Hershey's Milk Chocolate Fractions Book, is an excellent educational resource for teaching fractions (improper fractions, equivalent fractions) to students in the junior grades. I too am going to use this resource for my own math class in the future. Erin, you wrote that your answers were outside of the box for the fraction worksheet. I did not even know how to define what a fraction is. Together with my group table, we came up with a good definition.
-Cindy Gaspar