Fun with Fractions!

So, who is super excited about teaching fractions?!?

Regardless of grade level, I feel like fractions is always the unit I dread.  There is so much to cover, we always get to it towards the end of the year, and there is so much conceptual AND content to learn.

Last week, we played an AWESOME fraction game in 4th grade that got me a *little* excited!!  There was so much differentiation easily integrated into the game that it was accessible for my low students, yet challenging for my high students.  I LOVE activities with a "low floor, high ceiling".

This one is called Build A Fraction Wall. 

Here is how we differentiated the game to make it accessible and challenging:

• Students can CHOOSE to create equivalent fractions, but are not penalized if they do not find equivalent fractions. This allows our lower-level students to simply focus on what a fraction is. 

This students pulled cards for 4 fifths. She colored exactly what the cards said instead of finding an equivalent.

• We gave students fraction tiles to use while they were playing the game. This gave a hands-on way to create equivalent fractions for the students who needed it.

Changing fifths to tenths using fraction tiles

• Surprise! Sometimes the cards drawn created a MIXED NUMBER! We haven't covered mixed numbers yet, so the fraction tiles came in really handy:

• To win the game, students could either count a "whole" as a full row across that they filled in, OR they could combine partial rows to create a whole. This lent itself to not only equivalent fractions, but also addition of fractions with different denominators. Again, fraction tiles came in very handy if students chose this route!

The students loved playing this game, and we as teachers loved it too! Next week we are going to play a very similar game called Fraction Race. We will use the same differentiation strategies to help all students be successful and grow!

If you are looking for more low floor - high ceiling activities:

• Check out the tasks from youcubed.org.  Under "Grades" choose "Low Floor High Ceiling"
• Use games from k-5mathteachingresources.com or another source and add the option of using manipulatives with the game.

As always, let us know if you need ideas or resources - we are happy to help you!

Happy playing,
Christi