Fraction Lessons and Strategies

Fraction concepts can be tough for kids to understand, so I'm always looking for fun ways to teach them. Because visual models are important for concept development, I created these activity cards that have penguin fractions on the fronts and matching fraction bars on the backs. They're great for all kinds of fraction games and activities! Download a free Equivalent Fractions Sorting activity to try with your own students!

No doubt about it ... comparing fractions with different denominators is tough! In fact, some might argue that this skill is too challenging for 3rd and 4th graders, which might be true if they have to find least common denominators. But if kids develop fraction number sense instead of memorizing algorithms, they will blow you away with how easily they use creative thinking to solve comparison problems!

Have you ever considered using grocery store flyers to help your students practice math skills? There are so many possibilities, and the fun is endless!

Jelly Bean Egg Challenge is a sweet statistics lesson that requires students to measure, estimate, collect, compile, and graph jelly bean data in order to analyze it and draw conclusions.Give each student a plastic egg filled with an assortment of jelly beans, and let the fun (and learning) begin!

Sometimes kids think our Earth has unlimited resources and they don't realize that only a small part of our planet is habitable. Edible Earth Rounds is a tasty activity you can use to demonstrate this concept, and it's a great way to sneak in a fraction lesson, too!

Gallon Robot is a terrific model to use for teaching both customary capacity units and reinforcing fraction concepts. Read this post to discover how Gallon Robot can come to the rescue if your students are struggling with measurement and fractions!