Primary Type: Lesson Plan
Status: Published
This is a resource from CPALMS (www.cpalms.org) where all educators go for bright ideas!
Resource ID#: 49707
Fraction Name Art
This lesson is designed to introduce and give students practice with the concept of fractions as part of a set. Students will use their classmates to
create fraction statements, play a guessing game with color tiles, and finally write fractional statements about their own Name Art!
Subject(s): Mathematics
Grade Level(s): 3
Intended Audience: Educators
Suggested Technology: Document Camera
Instructional Time: 1 Hour(s)
Freely Available: Yes
Keywords: fractions, set, numerator, denominator
Resource Collection: CPALMS Lesson Plan Development Initiative
LESSON CONTENT
Lesson Plan Template: General Lesson Plan
Learning Objectives: What should students know and be able to do as a result of this lesson?
Students will:
know that fractions must have equal parts.
know that fractions can show parts of a whole AND parts of a set.
know that the denominator of the fraction represents the number of equal parts.
know that the numerator of the fraction represents the parts that are shaded or different from the other parts in some way.
Prior Knowledge: What prior knowledge should students have for this lesson?
According to second grade mathematics standards, third graders:
should be able to partition circles and rectangles into two, three, and four equal shares.
should be able to describe the shares using the words halves, thirds, and fourths.
should be able to describe the whole as two halves, three thirds, or four fourths.
At the start of the lesson, review fractions as part of a whole. Show pictures of common fractions to the students and have them write the fractions on a white board
to quickly assess who understands the concept. Conversely, you could give students the fraction, and have them draw a picture to match.
Guiding Questions: What are the guiding questions for this lesson?
1. Can you name fractions that show part of a set using your classmates, color tiles, and the letters in your name?
2. Can you explain how you chose the numerator for your fraction?
3. Can you explain how you chose the denominator for your fraction?
Teaching Phase: How will the teacher present the concept or skill to students?
1. Say to students: "Yesterday we talked about fractions as part of a whole. But how do we name fractions if we are not dividing one whole shape?"
2. Call a group of four students to the front of the classroom. Say: "How can I use fractions to describe this group of students? I could say that onefourth of this group is wearing jeans today." Allow students to make their own observations about the group using fractions. Guide them to the idea that twofourths of the group is the same as one-half, and four-fourths is the same as a whole. "Four-fourths of the group, or the WHOLE group, is wearing
sneakers for PE today."
page 1 of 4 3. Once you have made a few observations about these particular students, change the group of students until every student has had a turn to come up to the front.
Change the number of students in the set each time so the fractions have different denominators.
Guided Practice: What activities or exercises will the students complete with teacher guidance?
1. Tell the students we are going to play a game using fractions as part of a set. Set bowls of color tiles in the center of each table or student group and give each
student two small slips of grid paper and an index card.
2. Each student is going to make a pattern with 6, 8, 10, or 12 color tiles. Students must first choose the tiles they would like to use. Then they can arrange them in
any way to form a solid rectangle and record the rectangle on the grid paper. Model this step on the document camera.
3. Tell students they will write 3 clues that describe the fractional parts of their rectangle on the index card. ex. My fraction bar is two-sixths blue. Model this step as
well, then give the students time to write their own clues. Circulate to make sure student clues are correct.
4. Pick up the index cards (but not the grid paper), shuffle them, and then randomly pass them out to different students in the class.
5. Have the students follow the clues to try to build the mystery fraction bar using the color tiles. They then record their final guess on the second slip of grid paper.
6. When you have finished, allow students to get up and compare what they drew to the clue writers original drawing and discuss the results. The teacher should
circulate and listen to the students' conversations. Did anyone recreate the drawing correctly? Why or why not? How did the denominator in the clues help you to
know how long to make your fraction bar? Discuss with students how the fraction clues did not give them information as to the order of the color tiles. Could more
than one fraction bar be drawn for each set of clues? Notice if anyone named the fractions incorrectly or simplified the fractions on their own.
Independent Practice: What activities or exercises will students complete to reinforce the concepts and skills developed in the
lesson?
1. Tell students they are going to be illustrating their own name and then writing fraction statements about their name. Distribute a large piece of white construction
paper or card stock to each student and have them neatly print their name in bubble letters. To make this easier, I provide the students with die cut letters for them
to trace. Alternatively, I have had them type their name using selected fonts in the computer lab and print them out to be filled in during the math lesson. (This is a
good time to give a lesson in Microsoft Word - changing fonts, size, centering on the page, etc.)
2. Give students a fifteen minute time limit to color and decorate their names. Students can use any colors or patterns (stripes, polka dots, checkerboard, etc.) but
each letter can only be ONE color. I use this countdown timer (click to open) to keep students on track. Make sure to enlarge the screen when using the web-based
timer so as to not show students advertisements on the site
3. Display your own name art. Ask the students: "If I was to write a fraction about my name, what would the denominator be? Why? What fraction of
my name is blue? What fraction is striped? What fraction of my name is made up of consonants?" Model 2 or 3 fraction statements of the document
camera.
4. Ask students to write 5 fraction statements about their name below their name art.
page 2 of 4 Closure: How will the teacher assist students in organizing the knowledge gained in the lesson?
1. Gather the students on the carpet and allow them to share their name art with a partner. (See partner tips in the further recommendation section)
2. Discuss the following concepts:
Did you and your partner have the same denominator in your fractions? Why or why not?
How does the numerator in your fraction change? What does it represent?
When else might you use fractions as part of a set in your daily life?
Summative Assessment
1. The teacher will use the Fraction Name Art activity to determine if students can independently identify fractions as part of a set.
2. The teacher will also listen to the student conversations and justifications at the end of the activity.
1. Can students verbalize that they may have different denominators in their fractions because the number of letters in their name (the set)
may be different than their peers?
2. Can students explain that the numerator refers to a specific part of the set, for example the pink letters or the letters that have flowers on
them?
Formative Assessment
The teacher will use formative assessment to check for understanding throughout the lesson.
The teacher will begin the lesson with a quick whiteboard check on students' knowledge of fractions as part of a whole. (See Prior Knowledge section)
The teacher will listen to student feedback as they use groups of their peers to create fraction statements and correct misconceptions as needed.
The teacher will circulate during the color tile activity to observe student clues to check for understanding.
Feedback to Students
During the Prior Knowledge, Teaching Phase, and Guided Practice, the teacher will listen to students' conversations and observe the students as they write
fractional statements.
A student demonstrates understanding if he or she is able to make accurate statements about fractions as part of a group or set.
If a student makes part-part statements, reinforce the idea of fractions as part of a whole. It sometimes helps students to use the words "out of" to help with this
idea. For example, if a child looks at a set of four tiles (1 red, 1 blue, and 2 green) and says "one-third of the tiles are blue," that is often because he or she is
thinking one tile is blue and three are not. Have them try rephrasing the fraction as "one out of four tiles are blue."
ACCOMMODATIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS
Accommodations:
If students are having trouble with the concept of fractions as part of a set, have them physically move the objects (be they classmates or color tiles) and separate
them in to groups so it is easier to see visually.
Remind them that the set is the whole, and if it helps they can use the words "out of" to help them determine the fraction. One out of three students is wearing a
headband today. Follow up these statements by having the student write the fraction on a whiteboard to ensure he or she can write the fraction in standard form.
Extensions:
Have students try to make words out of a longer word and tell what fraction of the letters they use. For example, I gave my early finishers the word PANTHERS (our
school mascot). In their math journals, they made as many words as they could from those letters and told me what fraction of the letters they used.
ex. HEN PANT -
or
Challenge them to find a word that uses the largest fraction of the original letters in the set!
Suggested Technology: Document Camera
Special Materials Needed:
For the teacher:
bowls of color tiles for each table or group
die cut alphabet letters for each table or group
For each student:
crayons or colored pencils
2 small slips of grid paper
one index card
Further Recommendations:
The "Name Art" final projects make a great bulletin board! If you have artistic students who are not satisfied with the job they were able to do within the 15 minute
page 3 of 4 time limit, I either allow them to finish it at a math center or take it home.
When partnering students, I often "pick sticks" out of a jar of Popsicle sticks labeled with each student's name.
Additional Information/Instructions
By Author/Submitter
This resource is likely to support student engagement in the following the Mathematical Practice: MAFS.K12.MP.4.1 - Model with mathematics.
SOURCE AND ACCESS INFORMATION
Contributed by: Karyn Cole
Name of Author/Source: Karyn Cole
District/Organization of Contributor(s): Brevard
Is this Resource freely Available? Yes
Access Privileges: Public
License: CPALMS License - no distribution - non commercial
Related Standards
Name
MAFS.3.NF.1.1:
Description
Understand a fraction 1/b as the quantity formed by 1 part when a whole is partitioned into b equal parts; understand
a fraction a/b as the quantity formed by a parts of size 1/b.
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