Open-ended equivalent fractions

We began by looking at this short funny video that shows how problem solving using equivalent fractions and then discussed: Equivalent fractions cartoon story problem


Knowing I have such diverse understandings of fractions in my class, we used an open-ended task.  Giving the children several fraction walls, they had 10 minutes to identify as many equivalent fractions as they could. If they felt they understood this well, they could extend their thinking further by creating number sums that equated each other. 

Eg,   1/2  +   1/3    =   2 whole - 1/6


After the 10 minutes, they partnered up and together chose 10 of their most interesting questions and published them and their answers.  We will be using these to pass around during the week to answer each other's posed questions. (When receiving the questions, they can fold the paper in half and then check the answers afterwards) Students with easier questions will be given similar partner questions as that is the level they are at.  Those students creating more challenging thinking will equally receive similar questions from other partners.

Some samples:

To help gain a better understanding of why we are learning about equivalent fractions, partners wrote word problems and then placed them in the column that they felt according to the level of difficulty:

           (Children will select a question to try to solve throughout the week)

We then used a Marilyn Burns activity where we thought about different ways we could represent one-quarter. The question posed was how many different ways could we cut a cake up into quarters.

Student sample:

We then chose one in particular that we were proud of and added to our class poster.  We discussed the different ideas and how our thinking and strategies changed as we did the activity: