this pin on pinterest - a fabulous idea from Buzzing with Mrs. B. We cut 10 pieces of paper at various lengths to make this flipbook and stapled the pages together at the top. I made a quick handout for each student that had 9 boxes for the labels, 9 circles and 9 rectangles for drawing the fractions, and 9 tables that had fraction, decimal, and percent sections. Students cut out all the pieces and glued them into each section. We did two sections together, and then the students were responsible for finishing the book independently so I could assess for understanding.
We also completed a left-side of the page thinking for this entry, where students discuss what they already know, what they learned, proof, and a reflection. Do you see the yellow dot in the top left corner? This is our traffic light comprehension - students give a green dot if they found the concept easy, yellow for some difficulty, and red for a lot of difficulty. We use our traffic light comprehension dots on our group work during our three-part lessons in math, but I hadn't thought of adding them to our math journals until now. This gives me a quick way to see what students may need a little extra help with this lesson or concept. Can't believe I didn't think of adding it to my journals until now - LOVE how the journals keep evolving this year!
Our second journal entry focused on Equivalent Fractions. I've been using pizza fractions for years (and judging from the amount of pins on pinterest, so has everyone else). ;) I gave each student a circle and had them draw a smaller circle around the edge to make a crust for the pizza. We then folded our circle into sixteenths. I gave students the learning goal and instructions to make the pizza: 1/4 cheese, 1/4 pepperoni, 1/8 mushrooms, 1/8 sausage, 3/16 green olives (or alligator nostrils as my four-year old calls them), and 1/16 anchovies (had to get something in there to "gross out" my plethora of boys in the class). We discussed that 2/8 equaled 1/4, and 2/4 equaled 1/2, and so on ...
We then cut along the fraction lines and peeled back the sections so we could practice our converting to decimals and percents (still working on that concept from last week).
We also completed a left side of the page thinking for this entry. I completely forgot to remind the students to add a traffic light comprehension dot to their page this time ... I think I'll get them to do that before I invite a student to share his or her journal entry as our review on Monday.