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Angela Walter
ELD 375
Professor Baldassare
10 April 2014
Fractions Lesson Plan
RATIONALE
The purpose of this lesson is for the students to recognize that fractions can be identified in a
group of whole objects rather than just pieces of a whole.
Common Core Standard:

CCSS.Math.Content.1.G.A.3- Partition circles and rectangles into two and four

equal shares, describe the shares using the words halves, fourths, and quarters,
and use the phrases half of, fourth of, and quarter of. Describe the whole as two
of, or four of the shares. Understand for these examples that decomposing into
more equal shares creates smaller shares.

This lesson is important because students often assume that fractions are only shapes divided
into equal parts. Students often have the misconception, when first learning fractions, that
fraction are only parts of whole and struggle with the idea that fractions can be applied to sets of
objects Students must be able to recognize that fractions can also be found when groups of
objects are divided into parts.

OBJECTIVES

Students will be able to identify and show one half, one third or one fourth of a group of two,
three or four objects, respectively.
Students will be able to use manipulatives to visualize the fractions.
Students will be able to recognize that fractions can be viewed as whole sets of objects rather
than just pieces of a whole.

Students will be able to label fractions in sentence form.

Students will be able to identify what number is placed in the numerator and what number is
placed in the denominator.
Students will be able to classify and name fractions using terms like, halves, thirds, fourth or
quarters.
LESSON PROGRESSION
Introduction:

To introduce the lesson to the class, we review fractions.

o I draw shapes divided into equal parts with one section shaded in on the
board and have a student write a fraction next to the picture.

The students will be asked to explain why they think that fraction
represents the picture.

For example, students will explain to the class that one out
three circles is colored red so it represent one third.

o After a few examples, if the students understand the concept, I ask a few
students to draw a shape and to color in one half, one third or one fourth
on the board and label it.

One again, I ask the students how they know that the fraction they
wrote represents the image.

With the student showing they have an understanding of fractions represented as

a shape divided into equal portions, we move on to fractions in a group of
objects.
o I draw four circles on the board (three black and one red).

How many of the circles are red? (1)

How many circles are there in all? (4)

I think out loud 1 out of 4 equal parts is red.

I ask the students if this can be a fraction and why.

I explain that like the divided shapes we looked at, these

circles are also fractions.
o The different colored circle is part of the whole
group of circles just like the colored part of the
circle was part of the whole circle.

I ask the students what the fraction is and ask a student to write
the fraction on the board.

I state, One out of four circles is red.

o After a few examples where I think about the answer out loud, I ask some
of the students to draw a group of fractions.

I write 1/3 on the board and then the student will draw one black
circle and two green circles.

I then ask the student to explain the answer.

This lesson fits into the big picture for first grade because in the common core
standards, it states that is appropriate for first graders to halves, thirds and
fourths.
o Basic fractions are first introduced at the end of First Grade. When the
students reach second grade, their knowledge of fractions will expand into
concepts like fifths, sixth, etc. One the student reach third grade, they
begin to work with fractions more. First grade is the grade where basic
fractions are introduced to students.

Middle:

To proceed with the lesson, I model and explain the hands on activity.

I hold up four crayons (one red, three blue).

o All of the crayons are the same but the blue on is different.
o I ask the students 1 Out of 4 crayons is blue (different). What fraction of the
group of crayons that is blue? (one forth)
o I remind the students the top number (numerator) tells us which one is different
and the bottom number (denominator) is the total number.

1 blue crayon

4 crayons total

One out of four crayons is blue.

o I model this concept a few more times, until the students are ready to move on to
the activity.

With the students display an understanding of this concept, I introduce the activity.
o Students will be shown a model of the project.
o The students will collect the objects need from the side of the room and return to
their seats.
o The students are asked to take out their pencils, scissor and glue sticks in order to
prepare for the lesson.

The students are reminded that they must not start cutting or writing until
they hear all of the directions.

Place all pencils, papers, and scissors down. Eyes and ears on me.

o I explain and model the steps to the project.

The students will fold the construction paper into four sections.

I will help the students and model how to fold the paper.
o I review fractions saying we fold the paper into two halves
and then into four fourths.

The students will cut the objects out.

Every student will be given sheets of paper with groups of objects

and paper strips.
o Example of one set: 4 bunnies-one blue, three pink
o Students are reminded that the groups of objects must stay
in their groups.

Do not mix the birds with the bunnies.

Keep all the baseballs in a pile and the flowers in

another.

Objects to cut out are located on pages 15

and 16.

Students are asked to place the objects in the boxes on the paper.

All the flowers go in one box.

The sentence strip that says flowers goes in that box as well.

Glue one group of objects in one of the boxes.

After looking at the group of objects, on the sentence strip, write the
sentence that represents the groups.

Repeat the process for the other groups of objects

Students will also write the fraction in the box.

As the students do the activity, I walk around monitoring their work, helping the students
if needed.

Sample Project on pages 12 and 13.

Sentence strips on page 10.

Closure:

To close the activity, the children return to carpet and share their project.

Before they walk to the carpet, they are asked to clean up any paper scraps.
o Down on the Farm fraction song will be played as they clean up and arrive at
the carpet.

The students will have the opportunity to explain the fractions on their projects to their
classmates.
o A student will stand up, holding up the project and say I wrote the fraction 1/3
because 1 out of 3 flowers is yellow.

The students are encouraged to read and explain the sentence strip as they
explain the answer.

ASSESSMENT
Students will be very informally assessed based off of how well they complete the hands-on
art activity.
To more formally assess the students, I will ask them to draw pictures to show one half of a
group, one third of a group and one fourth of a group. They will have to label the picture with the
appropriate fraction.
The assessment links to the objectives because the students will be drawing and identifying
sets of fraction including halves, thirds, and fourths. The students will have to recognize what
number goes in the numerator and what number goes in the denominator.
The following criteria will be used to assess the students:

3- The student was able to correctly draw and label all three fractions. They displayed a
good understanding of the concept. The fraction matched the picture for all three
examples.

2-Students make one or two mistakes. They might have the correct picture but the wrong
fraction to represent it. They might have both the halves and thirds completely correct but
have the incorrect fraction and picture for the fourths. The students displayed a decent
understanding of fractions but have room to improve.

1- Students make more than two mistakes. More than one fraction has a mismatched
picture and fraction or all of the fractions were incorrect but the pictures were correct.
The student display very little to no understanding of fractions.

The assessment is located in page 14.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
Materials:

White board

Dry Erase Markers in a few colors

Groups of crayons or objects (i.e. One blue, three red)

Construction paper

Sentence strips (as well as the differentiation sentence strips)

Pencils

4 Bunny pictures (1 blue, 3 pink)

3 Flower pictures (1 yellow, 2 green)

2 Baseball pictures (1 white, 1 blue)

4 Bird pictures (1 purple, 3 black)

Glue sticks

Scissors

Computer with internet access

IPad (For differentiation)

Source

This lesson was inspired from some of the activities in my cooperating teachers text
book. (Lesson 5-13, Pages 187A-187)

The book includes a lot of activities and lesson ideas so I selected the ideas and activities
that I though the students would learn the most from.

I modified this lesson to incorporate halves, thirds and fourths because thats what the
standards for first grade focus on.

I changed the activity so I provide the students the pictures to sort rather than them
looking through magazines for pictures to create more concrete groups of objects.

I added sentence strips so the students think more about the fraction rather than just
writing the fraction. The students are forced to break down the fraction and think about
the parts of the fraction.

Down on the Farm song:

o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IshCN-3bP5I

Possible Questions:

How many crayons are red?

How many crayons total?

What is the fraction?

Can groups of objects be fractions or are only piece of shapes fractions?

Can anyone tell me a real life example of a fraction?

How many objects total are there when I say thirds?

Can it be a fraction if all of the objects are the same?

What is the numerator?

What is the denominator?

Where is the total number? In the numerator or denominator?

How many total bunnies are there?

Why did you write that fraction to represent that picture?

Classroom Management

I explain to the students before we start the lesson that if they a work hard when we do
the lesson, we will do an activity.

If students misbehave while cutting and sorting the pictures, they will be asked to draw
objects.

Students will be told specific directions before completing the activity.

By playing the fraction song for the students, they are encouraged to stay quiet as they
clean the paper scraps.

Misconceptions

I expect the students to respond by being excited and chatty when I introduce the hands
on activity.
o I wait until the lesson is complete before introducing the activity so the students
focus on the lesson.
o I tell the students that they must remain quiet during the activity or they will have
to stop doing the activity with the objects and draw pictures.

I expect the students to mix up the shapes and sort the pictures incorrectly.

o I stress to the students that they must keep the pictures with their group.

By establishing a clear set of rules and procedure, I expect the students to tone down their
excitement and follow the rules.

Students may not initially understand that fractions are in groups of whole objects.
o I use will use manipulatives to model the concept.

A misconception the student may have is what number make the numerator and what
number makes the denominator.
o I remind the students that numerator is the number that represents the part and the
denominator represents the total.

DIFFERENTIATION
Students who struggle to understand the concepts taught in this lesson will be given strips of
paper where they do not have to fill in the blanks.

The strips of paper will be completely filled out.

They will still be asked to write the fraction.

Differentiation strips are located on page 11.

Students who are physically unable to cut and sort objects will complete this activity on an
iPad or computer on software where they can manipulate and label objects.
This lesson is ideal for kinesthetic learners. The hands-on activity helps the students
physically manipulate the fractions.
Visual learners will benefit from the drawings I place on the board as I review and introduce
the lesson.
Linguistic learners will benefit from the oral explanation of the concept that will be presented
in the introduction of the lesson.
Auditory learners will benefit from the Down on the Farm fraction song that is played.

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Sentence Strips
____ out of ____ Bunnies is ______.
(Different #)

(Total #)

(Different color)

____ out of ____ Flowers is ______.

(Different #)

(Total #)

(Different color)

____ out of ____ Baseballs is ______.

(Different #)

(Total #)

(Different color)

____ out of ____ Birds is ______.

(Different #) (Total #)

(Different color)

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Differentiation Strips
__1__ out of __4__ Bunnies is ___blue___.
(Different #)

(Total #)

(Different color)

__1__ out of __3__ Flowers is ___yellow___.

(Different #)

(Total #)

(Different color)

__1__ out of __2__ Baseballs is _blue_____.

(Different #)

(Total #)

(Different color)

__1__ out of __4__ Birds is __purple____.

(Different #) (Total #)

(Different color)

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out of 4 pipe cleaners is red.

1
4
3

1 out of 3 pom-poms is yellow.

11
42
1 out of 2 shapes are green.
1 out of 4 flowers is orange.

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Sample Project

(Birds will be out of 4 rather than 5)

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Assessment
Name____________________________________________ Date_________
Picture

One Halve

One Third

Fraction

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One Fourth

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