Pattern Block Fractions

A new school year is underway and I am continuing my journey to make math hands on and fun while increasing student comprehension.  Over the summer I piloted a lot of different activities with an 8th grade bridge course, and I am now bringing some of the successful ones into my classroom.  My goal is to limit my "lecture" and to increase student discourse and participation.

   So as I started the dreaded chapter on fractions today, I really wanted to focus on helping them to comprehend the concepts and not just memorize algorithms.  I was luck to be able to be a part of the Ventura County Math Leadership Network, and attended a meeting last week.  From the summer lesson searching, and this meeting I introduced fractions in my classroom today using 2 techniques I had never done before.   Knowing that fractions give students, and all people, trouble I wanted the kids to play with the concept of fractions and discover equal parts before I taught any specific rules or concepts.

  So I passed out bags of pattern block (see picture below if you are unfamiliar)

and had the students compare them and give them fractional values.  Most were abel to do this very easily.  Then I created a new figure using the block, and discussed how the whole amount was no longer the yellow block.  Students talked about the new whole amount, and answered  a series of questions about what fraction each shape now represented in comparison to the whole.  Then we talked about how we had to divide the figure into equal size pieces to get these fractions.

Later this week I plan to introduce adding using the blocks again, and hoping they will see why we need to find "common denominators" in order to add the pieces together.  Overall the lesson was really fun, and the kids were talking and understanding how the whole size can change the value of a piece and the fraction associated with it.