To Half or Half Not
Number Sense/Computation
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Objective
The students will use a geoboard to demonstrate different ways to divide a rectangle
in half and then identify equivalent fractions that represent one-half.
Overview of the Lesson
Using slices of bread and geoboards as manipulatives, students explore several ways
to divide a rectangle in half. Students engage in an activity where they try to
outsmart an alien from the planet of Fractional who is coming to their class to take
one-half of their candy. The poor alien does not really understand the concept of
one-half and thinks that it means taking one piece of something no matter how
many equal pieces the whole is divided. The teacher encourages the intelligent
Earthlings to outsmart the devious alien by making equivalent fractions for one-half
on their geoboards. When the alien arrives, he looks at the fractional pieces
and is confused. He sees the geoboard divided into six pieces and takes only one,
thinking that he has one-half. The Earthlings laugh because he only has one-sixth
and not one-half and they have thus outsmarted the alien. Students then work at
stations to gain more experiences with fractions. They play a game with a spinner
and paper plate pieces to try to be the first person to make one complete plate or
pizza. Students also pretend they work in a ribbon factory as they respond to
customer complaints about receiving the wrong amounts of ribbon. They utilize
their knowledge of fractions to correctly measure the ribbon and thus satisfy the
customers.
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