Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Fractions

The class had been studying fractions in maths, so we decided to include some activities that would strengthen their understanding and challenge the more capable.

First there was toast! The kids discovered there were lots of different ways to cut a slice in half and in quarters. Some tried eighths but it was a bit fiddly eating them!

We also had play dough! Working out how to cut something into quarters, eighths, sixteenths bought out lots of oral language and problem solving.

Some clever souls accepted the challenge and managed to work out how to cut a pizza into 64 equal pieces. Well, nearly equal!!!!!!

Then the group constucting things with Klikko noticed that you needed six triangles to make a circle and worked out that two sixths was the same as one third.

The class teacher and I sat back, watched, listened and asked questions.
How did you do that?
What did you find out?
What would happen if....?
What other fractions could you make?
Are all the pieces equal?
How can you make them equal?

We had lots of other activities going on at the same time but nearly everyone thought that making toast was the best. Bother! Why didn't I think to ask what fraction of the class...










1 comment:

Miss Y said...

Look fun. Please can you tell me what year/age you did this with?