Fun with Fractions! Lessons for 3rd grade

Relax… don’t panic. This will be fun!

*When you hear the word ‘fraction’ what do you think of?

(Let’s have a short class discussion)

*There are fractions all around us…what are some examples you can think of?

(go ahead and get up…look around!)

Lesson 1: Part-Whole Fresh Baked Fractions

Pizza with your friends*Pretend you and 7 friends want to share a pizza equally… how would you divide it up to share between you? (this lesson is to demonstrate the basics of fractions)

Materials Needed: round piece of construction paper, pencils,

To being today’s lesson… -Everyone get out a sheet of plain white paper. -Fold the paper in half. What do you see? -Now shade in one side of your paper. -Can someone tell me how many parts you have?-Will someone come up to the board to write ½ on the board?-There are two special words we will discuss now… numerator and denominator

Special Word #1Numerator

The NUMERATOR is the ‘part’ or top number of the fraction.

Here’s an example:

1 -----this is the numerator, the top number, the part ------------

2

Special Word #1Numerator

Let’s look at these fractions. Let’s find the numerator in each one.

4 2 5 3--------- - ------------- ------------- --------------

5 3 8 4

Pause!

Tell the person next to you another name for the numerator. Write your own fraction and circle the numerator.

Special Word #2Denominator

The DENOMINATOR is the bottom number of the fraction. It is the total number of equal parts. This number is the whole.

Here’s an example…

1---------

2 ------ this is the denominator

How are you doing?Talk to me!

What are you thinking about?

What questions do you have?

Take a minute to think and thenask me or your neighbor.

Who is ready to talk pizza?!We have talked about numerators and denominators so far. Next…*Everyone needs their piece of paper. *What fraction do you have right now? (1/2)

Now it’s time to divide up the paper into more equal parts. Divide the paper in half again. Now how many equal parts do you have? (4)

How many people are you sharing the pizza with?

Who is ready to talk pizza?! You are sharing your pizza with 7

other people and yourself. So that is _____ people.

*We will have to fold our paper once more. *Why? Say what you’re thinking out loud 1…2…3… GO!

Who is ready to talk pizza?!Let’s wrap it up…

*Open your piece of paper and count your parts of the whole.

*What do you have? Can someone show us what their piece of paper looks like?

*If there are 8 people how many pieces of pizza will each of you have to eat? We would say each person is eating 1 piece or 1/8 of the pizza.

*Why is 1 the numerator? Why is 8 the denominator?

*What is something new you learned today about fractions?

Lesson 2: Part-Whole Using Goldfish crackers

*Who has snacked on Goldfish crackers before? How do you think they can be used for math?

*In lesson 1 we talked about two special words. What were they? And what do they mean?

*Today everyone will get 15 Goldfish.

*We will work on making equal groups.

Lesson 2: Goldfish*Can I have 3 helpers to pass out 15 Goldfish to each student?

*Move your Goldfish around to create equal groups. (ask your neighbor or me for help if you need it)

*How many groups do have? How many are in each group?

*We should all have 5 groups with 3 goldfish in each.