Fractions Math Lesson Plan

Subject area:  Mathematics
Grade level:  3rd Grade

MN math standards:  3.1.3.1- Read and write fractions with words and symbols. Recognize that fractions can be used to represent parts of a whole, parts of a set, points on a number line, or distances on a number line.

Objectives:  Students should be able to read and write fractions with words and symbols.
Time to be used:  50 minutes

List of materials: 



Teaching process:
Before the lesson:
            Before the class starts, the Smart-board should be aligned and download the smart-board lesson from http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=x380afd3807814f878eb6f0069b4a9968.  Each table should have enough paper and scissors for each student. The teacher should address that the materials should be kept in the middle of the table until the teacher says to touch them.  The students will be asked to sit in front of the smart-board in the classroom.

During the lesson:
            The teacher should show the first slide of the smart-board lesson and talk about what objects can help represent fractions such as pie, pizza, apples, oranges, etc. Review with the class that the numerator is the number of selected parts and the denominator is the total number of equal parts that make up the whole. Go to the second slide and have volunteers come up to the smart-board and color in 1/7 of the circle green and 2/7 of it blue. After that go to the third slide and have the children guess what fraction the circle shows and why (1/2 is one part of two groups). The teacher should then show the fourth slide and have a student put the pieces together. Have the students’ brainstorm what fraction is missing from the circle and ask them to explain why. After the smart-board activity, have the students go back to their desks.

After the lesson:

Activity: M&Ms
The teacher should tell the students that they will get a cup full of M&Ms, but before they do this they must agree not to eat any of their M&Ms until they have completed their assignment. Have one table come up at a time to fill up their cups with M&Ms, then have them return to their seat. Once everyone has their cup full, have them carefully pour them out on the desk. The teacher should then tell the students to count how many they have total and write it in their notebooks. Pick an M&M color such as green and tell them to count how many they have. Have them write the fraction on their sheet of paper and repeat this until you’ve named every color. The teacher should then pair the students up into groups of 2 to share their work with each other. After 5 minutes, call each group up to the smart-board to write their fractions out for everyone to see. The teacher should double check if they wrote it correctly as they write it on the board (no bigger numerators such as 12/10). Tell the students to put the M&Ms away in the front of the room or to eat them.  The teacher will then ask the students where the numerator and denominator are in a fraction. What color M&M made the biggest fraction?  What was the smallest fraction they made? Students will be asked to state a brief summary of what was learned in the lesson and how they can use everyday objects to make fractions.

Assessment: The teacher will monitor the students writing and reading fractions with their M&Ms and evaluate their participation. Students should have every color M&M fraction worked out on their notebook paper as well.

Closure: Today we learned  how to read and write fractions with words and symbols but tomorrow we will move onto practicing number sentences.