#809. Fractions

Mathematics, level: Elementary
Posted Mon Jan 18 06:46:32 PST 1999 by Zanada Maleki, Gr.5 (zmaleki@javanet.com).
Montello Elementary, Lewiston, ME, USA
Materials Required: multicolored blocks or legos type materials; paper and pencil
Activity Time: 45 minutes max.
Concepts Taught: recognizing fractional units, expressions of fractions , + of frations

Procudure: Create a construction! A building, creature, or abstract thing.
This works well for small group instruction of populations 1-5.

Be sure to have enough building blocks to accommodate: up to 300 pieces.

Have the people in the group divide the total number of blocks evenly.

They must record their number of blocks on their papers:
total blocks to work with per student: 50

Then they students have to inventory their share by color.
red=10 expressed as a fraction: 10/50
blue=20 expressed as a fraction: 20/50
etc.

After inventorying, the students have to add up the numerators of their
fractions to see if it is the same number as the demoninator.
If it is, then they are ready to build whatever they wish, but using
only what is in their individual inventory.

Lastly, the students have to write about their building creation, incorporating
fractions into their writing descriptions. The lesson may be extended for
for students who are advanced to include expressions of percentages based on the
fractions they used.

If you have more blocks available, you can use more student groupings.

This lesson works well for students who are advanced as well as
for those who need their math foundation strengthened, as well as
for mathphobics. They all get to respond to the basic task, as well
as respond on the level of operation in math where they actually
are.

If you hae 3 different math groups, all working on different
concepts, this is a task that students of different math levels
can participate in with whatever level they can respond.

Feedback is measured by points for focused, on task participation
and by what is recorded on the task sheet. The rest is fun with
a purpose.

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