Wow, it's been a while. Sorry I've been so horrible with posting lately! I have been trying to work on my Christmas Centers pack, but I just have not had time to sit down and finish it. Not to worry, it will be finished this weekend!
In the meantime, check out some of the fun fraction activities we've been doing in math...
I've probably said it before, but I LOVE Stuart Murphy's MathStart
series! We read yet another of his books this week called "Give Me
Half," which went along perfectly with our unit on fractions. After
reading, I brought out some cookies (Chewy Chips Ahoy, since they are
easy to cut) and demonstrated different ways to cut a cookie into two
pieces. The kids had to decide whether or not it was cut in two equal
pieces or "halves." They had fun telling me when my piece was too big
and "That's not fair!" Then I passed out a cookie and plastic knife to
each student and they had to cut them in half to share with their
partner (I didn't have my camera that day). Later, we made a craft to
display what we did.
We
learned about "fourths" by dividing and sharing pizzas! During math
centers, I worked with small groups to discuss how we could share our
pizza equally among four friends. They helped me cut the pizza into
fourths and each got to taste a bite! These were actually Lunchables
Pizzas. Yes, I know they're skimpy, but I spend wayyyy too much money on my classroom as it
is. I'm sure you know what I mean! Anyway, they loved it! And they were all able to explain that they
made four equal parts and divided the pizza into fourths! Yay! Later, we
made a craft to display what we learned.
We also read "The Doorbell Rang." I handed out paper "cookies" and students worked in pairs to figure out how to cut it for two
friends to share equally. Then I had students form groups of four and they had
to figure out how to cut and share it equally among four friends. Since it was
Thanksgiving, I brought in a pumpkin pie and students helped me decide
how to divide it in half and in fourths. Finally, we all got to try a
little piece! Yummy!
Here are some games I put together for my kids to practice fractions. Click here to download your free
Cookie Fractions Games. Enjoy!
Spin & Share - Students make cookies out of play dough. Then they spin the spinner to determine how to cut their cookie and record the fraction on the recording sheet. There are two spinners - one with fractions and another that shows how many children will share the cookie (in case you haven't taught them to read fractions).
Build a Cookie - For two players. Students roll a fraction die and add that fraction of a cookie to their page. First to make 5 cookies wins! You could also use the fraction spinner from above.
P.S. Many of these ideas were inspired by
Krazy for Kindergarten! Check out her page, she has some great stuff!
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