Have I mentioned how much I LOVE teaching Guided Math/Math Workshop with Math in Focus this year??? SO.MUCH. A MAJOR shout out to Anna DiGilio for helping me in the process!! One of the most wonderful things to come from it are the small group discussions, especially when the kids start experimenting with the manipulatives and something amazing happens. That's precisely what happened during our lesson about "fractions greater than one whole."
They knew the vocabulary for "numerator, denominator, improper fraction, and proper fraction." We worked with thirds and fourths on problems such as "8 fourths is equal to what?.... 2 wholes" and so on. It also led us to discussions of adding fractions. However, I was doing the same lesson with my advanced group when one of them said, "What if you have 6 fourths? What does that equal?" So we experimented and this led to the discussion about working with mixed numbers! Though this is not part of our curriculum, I just let my kids take the reigns and we spent time exploring more in depth. How beautiful it was to see them grasp the concept so quickly when they were the ones leading with questions!! Even my on-level group grasped the concept quickly. I know it helped to be playing with the pizza slices, but I was so proud of both groups!
*In the picture below, they are creating their own ways of showing
improper fractions equal to wholes or mixed numbers.
Click HERE to see an example of a video created by two of my students
to explain equivalent fractions.
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