Intro to Fractions
Divide and Shade
Parts to Whole
Objective: Students will learn to use fruit to illustrate how parts make a whole.
Materials: citrus fruit including oranges, tangerines, grapefruit.
- Distribute one piece of fruit to each pair of students.
- Talk about the shape of the fruit.
- List other objects that have the same shape as the fruit.
- Ask each team to separate the fruit sections.
- Count the number of sections.
- State, "If I remove one of the pieces, that would be one out of six."
- Ask, "If I remove two of the sections, what would that be?"
- Demonstrate how to write a fraction to illustrate one out of six, etc.
- Reinforce the idea that a fraction means a part of a whole.
Technology Activity: Students will use the applet, Parts of a Whole, from the National Library of Virtual Mathematics Manipulatives. Depending on the availability of computers for your students, this activity could be done individually, with partners, in groups, or as a class.
Have students go to Fractions.
Paper/Pencil Activity: Depending on the level of your students, you can have them complete this activity individually or with assistance:
- Provide a worksheet with pictures of fruit. [It could be fun to have a survey to see how many sections there really are in each fruit.]
- Students color the fruit to represent fractions given.
Bruce McMillan (New York: Scholastic 1991)