Are you looking for a few fun activities for fractions? Here are 3 easy and engaging ways to review and practice fractions in your elementary classroom!
1. Get Moving! "My Favorite" Fraction Activity
Getting students involved in the learning process is super important for learning, engagement, retention and more. I love using physical activity in the classroom to build excitement, and when it comes to fun activities for fractions that students love, this is one of them for sure! When introducing fractions and reviewing concepts from third and fourth grade, I use this activity to start things off.
Here's what you do:
1.Group your entire class together. Count the whole and write the number of students on the whiteboard. Write a fraction for your whole – for example, if there are 25 students in your class you will write 25/25 = 1 whole.
2.Call out a “my favorite” sentence…”My favorite color is blue.” All students who agree with the statement will go to a designated spot in the room. I like to use the morning meeting area as our “spot” but you could also have all students sit down and those who agree can stand up.
3.Count the part of the whole that fits the description and write a sentence on the board. Let’s say six students say that blue is their favorite color. You would write “6 kids out of 25 love blue.”
4.Discuss the relationship between this sentence and fractions. Then, write this sentence as a fraction 6/25. You can ask follow up questions, too! Ask your students what fraction of students have a favorite color that is not blue. Then, write that fraction. Show how these, when added together will equal the whole 25/25.
5.Continue calling out “my favorite” sentences and building fractions!
Students love doing this activity and I find that it can be a perfect activity to incorporate into morning meeting, too. Build one “my favorite” fraction a day and keep track of your fractions throughout the year.
2. Pizza...A Delicious Way to Review Fractions
One of my FAVORITE meals is pizza AND it’s one of my favorite fun activities for fractions, too!. This fraction activity is easy to do and makes a great display in the classroom, too. Here’s what you do:
Students can draw a circle (try having them trace a paper plate to get the perfect circle). Then, they use a ruler to split it into 12 equal slices – you can adjust this to fourths, sixths, eighths, etc. Once they have their fraction pizzas broken up into equal sections it’s time to top their pizzas – think pepperoni, cheese, peppers, sausage…the possibilities are endless (which is why pizza is so amazing)! In my directions to students I have them stick to one topping per slice. They can put that topping on multiple slices, but for ease of the lesson sticking to one makes sense for my students. Finally, we create our fractions. Students begin counting the number of slices they have for each topping and jot that information down. Then, we discuss the whole (12 if your pizza is cut into twelfths). We discuss the concepts of numerator (number of slices with that topping) and denominator (total number of slices in your pizza). Then…they are off. They write a fraction to represent the pizza toppings within their pizza. Then, we discuss how all of their numerators should equal the whole – this is a great time to illustrate that 12/12 = 1 whole.
3. Colorful Manipulatives
Colorful manipulatives are fun no matter what you are teaching in math, but they work especially well for fraction concepts. Now one of my favorites is…hear me out – COLORED. MACARONI. *mic drop*. Okay – maybe the mic drop was a bit dramatic, but I love this activity and students do, too. It’s easy and effective. Start by coloring a whole lot of macaroni – I like to use at least 3-4 different colors. Have each student grab a handful or cupful of pasta and get to work. They will count the total number of pieces first – this is their whole. Next, they separate the macaroni into piles by color. Then, it’s time to create their fractions. Let’s say they grab 32 pieces of macaroni. 15 of them are red, 10 of them are blue, and 7 of them are green. They will represent the fractions for each color: 15/32 are red, 10/32 are blue, and 7/32 are green. 15/32 + 10/32 + 7/32 = 32/32 = 1 whole.
So, that’s it! 3 of my favorite ways to review and practice basic fraction concepts with my students! If you want to learn more about how engaging math ideas, check out this blog post!