Fraction Flip Books that highlight
fact families and
equivalencies instead of order.
Fourth and Fifth grade teachers…. Stop making fraction books
that put unit fractions in descending or ascending order. Instead, group those fractions in to
families. Deeper learning and
understanding occurs.
We start with the whole and then create the halves, fourths,
and eighths using yellow bars.
We fold
to create halves, and label them.
Then
we fold another whole into halves, and I ask them, “How can we create fourths
from halves?”.
Students tell me to fold
it in half, so we do.
We then label
those fraction pieces after I ask them, what does
1/4 look
like.
Hold up what
3/4 looks
like.
I can ask them little questions
like which is longer
1/2 or 3/4 ?
Then
we repeat the process for the eights.
We
start with the whole, fold to make ½, fold again to make ¼ and then once more
to make
1/8 .
After we explore how they are related to
each other, we glue that family on the flip book.
Students learn that a fourth is half of a half and an eighth is half of a fourth HUGE!!! Folding paper is both visual and kinesthetic.
Folding paper strips provides for deeper understanding than
when the teacher provides a strip already labeled. They see the connection between the fraction
family unit fractions when they fold and label themselves.
1/12 can be included as part of the third fraction family,
but I leave it by itself. When we fold
to make those we fold sixths in half, but I have the students align the
twelfths to the fourths to notice that ¼ is equal in length to 3/12. I choose green for the twelfths because
yellow and blue combine to create green. When you add thirds and fourths you
create twelfths.
Fraction Families
1/2, 1/4, 1/8 yellow
1/3, 1/6 blue
1/12 green
1/5, 1/10 hot pink
I have created templates for 1/2, 1/3, 1/12 and 1/5 to print and use in the classroom. They can be found at my teachers pay teachers store for free. :-)
The link below will take you there.
Inside the fraction flip book, we label percent, decimal and
other fraction equivalents.
I also ask
the students to illustrate the fractions using the circle model, rectangle or
area model, or a set model.
This takes
an entire class period to create, but is so important.
The next class period, we formally compare
fractions and I introduce the number line based on the strips we used in class.
__________ ____________ ____________ __________ _____________
People have been asking for pictures of the inside of this book. These are pictures from one student's pages. The decimal point is difficult to see but 2/3 is equal to 66.6% on the first picture. He was not as comfortable with the circle model for sixths or fifths, but was able to provide a picture model for each fraction. This is a great formative assessment for their understanding.
We start with the whole and then create the halves, fourths,
and eighths using yellow bars. We fold
to create halves, and label them. Then
we fold another whole into halves, and I ask them, “How can we create fourths
from halves?”. Students tell me to fold
it in half, so we do. We then label
those fraction pieces after I ask them, what does 1/4 look
like. Hold up what 3/4 looks
like. I can ask them little questions
like which is longer 1/2 or 3/4 ? Then
we repeat the process for the eights. We
start with the whole, fold to make ½, fold again to make ¼ and then once more
to make 1/8 . After we explore how they are related to
each other, we glue that family on the flip book.
