Bridgewater College

Education Department Lesson Plan

Date and Title of Lesson: Subject Area(s): Mathematics VA: SOL(s)

Name: Ms. Hannah Garling

April 4, 2013 Adding and Subtracting Fractions with Unlike Denominators Grade Level(s)/Course: Fourth Grade 4.5 The Student will b) add and subtract fractions having like and unlike denominators that are limited to 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, and 12, and simplify the resulting fractions, using common multiples and factors;

Content Objective(s): 1. The students will be able to add fractions with unlike denominators 2. The students will be able to subtract fractions with unlike denominators 3. The students will be able to simply the results of adding/subtracting fractions

Accommodations/Differentiation

Summative Assessment (based on objectives): In order to achieve the objectives, each student will be able to: 1. complete a worksheet of adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators with 90% accuracy

Materials: Whiteboard with markers and eraser Adding/Subtracting Fractions Worksheet

Integration of Technology: No technology needed for this lesson

Accommodations/ Differentiation

Time Planned

Anticipatory Set (Focus): Wesley has bought 7/8 of a pound of fudge and Vera bought 1/2 pound of fudge. Now who bought more fudge? How do you know that? Now how much fudge do Wesley and Vera have altogether? To figure that out are we going to add, subtract, multiply, or divide? Now today we are going to learn how to do just that with fractions with unlike denominators.

5 min.

Access/Review Prior Knowledge: Write LCM on the board. Ask the students if they remember what it means. Explain that we will be using this concept in order to take our fractions with unlike denominators to turn them into fractions with like denominators in order to add and subtract them. Write GCM on the board. Ask students if they remember what it means. Explain that we will be using this concept in order to simplify the answers to our problems.

5 min.

Topic presentation (What will the students be told?): Like fractions can be added easily because they are already the same. Unlike fractions require a little bit more work before we can successfully add or subtract them. There are four steps that we need to do in order to add/subtract unlike fractions. 1. First, we must find the LCM of both denominators 2. Next, we rewrite our fractions as like fractions with the LCM as the denominator. 3. Now we can add/subtract our fractions. 4. Finally, we must simplify our answer by finding the GCF of the numerator and denominator. Modeling: 1. Teacher will demonstrate the process of adding fractions with unlike denominators with the problem: 3/4 + 1/5. 2. The teacher will model each step while asking the students for input such as helping list the multiples of the denominators and then what to multiply each fraction by in order to make them like fractions. Guided Practice: 1. The teacher will now allow the class to do the problem 2/3 + 5/12 on their own with input from the teacher. 2. The teacher will choose students to do each step of the problem so that not one student is doing all the work. 3. The teacher will then repeat the process with the problem 5/6 2/9. Checking for Understanding (Formative Evaluation)/Independent Practice: 1. The students will complete the attached worksheet. 2. They will do the first row of problems by themselves and then raise their hand to be checked by a teacher. 3. Then the students can move on and complete the rest of the worksheet at their own pace. 4. The students can free read when their worksheet is complete. 5. The students will turn in their worksheets at the end of the period.

Time: 5 min.

10 min.

15 min.

18 min.

Closure: Today we learned how to add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators and how to simplify the answers.

2 min.