SamizdatMath

This is a mostly excellent introduction for your 2nd - 4th grade students to the wonderful world of fractions. These are "fill in the fraction" games that use Cusenaire Rods as well as Pattern Blocks. The games are designed to be set up in under a minute: hand out the game boards to your students, and by making a long snip, a shorter snip, and 8 super short snips they'll have a game they can use to develop and deepen their basic understanding of how fractions work. The first thing these "hands o

This is a collection of hands on activities where students fill an outline of a rod with smaller rods to determine the length of a unit fraction. It develops the idea of the "flexible unit" by using different rods as the "unit" and then having students try to find rods that are 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 etc. of that unit. They then record their solutions by tracing the correct rod and shading it in. There is also an activity where they also find common fractions once they find the unit fraction. For example

What goes better with equivalent fractions than CHANUKAH! Hanukah Harry is carrying a fraction in his bag; surrounding him are equivalent fractions that are missing a numerator or denominator. Alas, one of them is NOT KOSHER and cannot be completed! For example, if there is a fraction 1/3 and ?/5 is one of the choices, it can't be completed, because 3rds can't be turned into 5ths. SO MUCH FUN your kids will love it finding treif fractions! Customer Tips: How to get TPT credit to use on future p

This is the BEST "cut n' connect" equivalent fractions activity ever. Here's why: 1) Multiple representations of fractions: all the others use the awful "pie" model. This one uses line, area and groups to model fractions from halves up to twelfths. 2) Students do most of the work: Many other versions come "pre-digested," that is, the pieces and fractions are all filled in. In this one, the students have to fill in the missing numerator, denominator or shade in the fraction before cutting out

This takes the traditional "fraction flipbook" and adds some innovations that I find lacking in other activities of this type. This is not an "art project," nor is it a cutesy time filler. With this version, I take it to the next level by introducing the following: 1) Cognitively Flexible: many flipbooks have all the fractions filled out, both numerator and denominator. So, what does the student do? Cut and staple. CUTTING AND STAPLING IS NOT COGNITIVE! There are two versions: one where the stud

This is 2 sets of 27 "I have, who has?" basic fraction cards. The idea to help young students (2nd, 3rd grade) practice identifying and naming different basic fraction names. If you have fewer than 27 kids in your class, you can have some students hold 2 cards. What makes this the BEST VERSION EVER? 1) Almost all the activities of this type exclusively use the "pie" or "circle" model. This activity uses both the pie and rectangular model; you can switch back and forth, or you can mix the cards

This is a nice little activity that I used with my 3rd graders, but would also be good for 2nd and 4th graders: Students cut out quarter inch calibrated rulers and then use it to measure the length and height of a variety of staplers, old and new, and then draw boxes that will hold the stapler. This comes with some very nice quarter inch rulers that you can print out, laminate and distribute to your students. Fun, cheap and really good to teach your kids about measuring in quarter inch incremen

I was sitting in a fifth grade math class yesterday afternoon watching a teacher do what I thought was pretty good lesson on fractions. As the kids struggled to figure out how to compare fractions, I was asked by a student whether fractions that had small denominators were larger. I answered, “well, that really depends....” and without missing a beat, that same student said, “so, if the numerator is big, then the fractions must be big too....” I replied, “well, that depends as well....” to whic

What goes better with equivalent fractions than ZOMBIES! And what goes better with zombies than Valentine's Day? Each of these ghouls represents a fraction; surrounding them are equivalent fractions with heart-shaped zombie brains that are missing a numerator or denominator. Alas, one of them is a ZOMBIE and cannot be completed! For example, if there is a fraction 1/3 and ?/5 is one of the choices, it can't be completed, because 3rds can't be turned into 5ths. SO MUCH FUN your kids will love i

This is a set of numerical fraction cards - no Dr. Seuss characters, no pie charts, just the numbers. Print them and cut them out. They have all the fractions from 1/2 up to 12/13. Better than the stuff supplied with those nasty cards that came with Go Math! or other half-fast curricula your school may have purchased. Good for activities like Number Snakes, Fraction Compare, and whatever else you can think of. Hey, they're only $2 and they're beautifully designed to be easily readable.

Your kids suck at sketching fractions, which is okay, because the truth is, EVERYBODY SUCKS AT SKETCHING FRACTIONS! You use manipulatives instead, which is great, but they are a butt-pain to distribute and clean up, and you can't send them home, so the kids, who suck at sketching fractions, end up getting incorrect answer when the do homework, or try to work in class without the manipulatives. These fraction cards, which have been specifically designed to abide by the CCSS for third grade, are

You'll like this puzzla - go check out the preview, download it and use it on your kids. The actual file includes a wonderful explanation of how you can solve this problem without using equivalent fractions. Cool no?

From the same soul that brought you the one & only Zombie Fraction activity, here is an interactive activity you can throw onto your SmartBoard (or whatever will import their files.) Just pop a fraction into the upper left corner, tap on the zombie, and faster than you can say "must ..... eat.......brains......" you'll see 6 different incomplete fractions appear around the zombie. Your students can now complete each of the fractions, but beware: one of them is a "zombie" and can't be completed!

This may be the wildest activity you EVER do in your classroom with a SmartBoard...... Load this into your SmartBoard, enter a fraction, and hit the "lump o' coal." Instantly before your eyes 6 fractions with missing numerators or denominators will appear! Your students have to figure out what those missing numerators and denominators are, but be careful: one of them can't be completed (it's the lump o' coal!)

Equivalent Fractions! Equivalent Fractions? Equivalent Fractions ---- Equivalent Fraction Practice / Equivalent Fraction Problems..... Okay, I know this appears to be a shameless attempt to cash in on the Christmas Holiday, but I am deeply concerned that many of you loved the idea of your students knowing when they can and when they cannot make an equivalent fraction. Why you need this activity: many of our students do something peculiar when they learn a new skill - they apply it to every case

Okay, I know this appears to be a shameless attempt to cash in on the Thanksgiving Holiday, but I am deeply concerned that many of you loved the idea of your students knowing when they can and when they cannot make an equivalent fraction. Why you need this activity: many of our students do something peculiar when they learn a new skill - they apply it to every case they see, whether they can use it or not. In this case, I've seen students try to turn the fraction 1/4 into 7ths, even though ther

What goes better with equivalent fractions than ZOMBIES! Each of these ghouls represents a fraction; surrounding them are equivalent fractions that are missing a numerator or denominator. Alas, one of them is a ZOMBIE and cannot be completed! For example, if there is a fraction 1/3 and ?/5 is one of the choices, it can't be completed, because 3rds can't be turned into 5ths. SO MUCH FUN your kids will love it finding zombie fractions! Customer Tips: How to get TPT credit to use on future purch

Here's the task: Put the following fractions in order from least to greatest: 3/7, 1/5, 5/6, 4/7, 7/8, 1/9 and 12/13 Would your students be comfortable doing this task, or would they groan and give up? Would you want your students to attempt this by drawing individual pictures of fractions? Would you want your students to attempt this using a desk full of manipulatives? The first thing you get in this kit is a set of standardized fraction cards that use a hybrid linear model; they are in th

Do you have pattern blocks? Traditionally, we know the triangles as sixths, rhombi as thirds and trapezoids as halves. But what if we changed this a bit? Suppose the trapezoid was not 1/2, but 1/4? What would that make the green triangles? What would "1" look like? If you want to deepen your students' understanding of fractions using manipulatives and having children work together on a very engaging and challenging set of tasks, then you'll want to buy this. This unit, complete with lesson pla

Students practice finding equivalent fractions using clues on each star; beware, one of the points cannot be completed! Includes template to make your own Fraction Star puzzles