Help with year 3 fractions observation lesson please!

We're starting out with the basics of 1/2, 1/4/3/4 etc this week, I have an observation on tuesday and my DH is looking for assessment for learning in the lesson and teaching and learning styles. I'm a bit stuck for ideas to make this an outstanding lesson!Please help!

 

I've decided to use smarties, children to work out the fraction of pink, orange smarties etc.

Can anyone suggest a success criteria for this?

 

I used smarties with data handling fairly recently. I take it you're going to put a certain number of smarties in tubs and make sure that the fraction is one of the ones you mentioned?

AfL - group you're working with (or TA's group...or both!) - have a laminated sheet with red, amber and green spaces. At beginning of session ask chn to put name where they think they are, change at end of lesson - hopefully there'll be positive movement!

 

be careful with the smartie idea, make sure you only use anough smarties for 1/2, 1/3 and 1/4 as you will ned up introducing other language that is not needed at this stage.

have you considered using cakes or pizza? When i did fractions with year 3 we started by cutting the cake in half so the children could grasp the concept of fractions being equal parts. I give one child more than the other and they were very quick to tell me that I was unfair and my halves were not equal!

 

PrincessWigwam-I'm using the first worksheet from here http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/maths/pdfs/15smartie.pd...

should I still manipulate the number of smarties?

 

I think I was a bit vague with the LI, it's To be able to find simple unit fractions of numbers.

Hope this all works out ok!

 

Sorry it may be me but I'm not sure what you mean, do you mean your objective is to find fractions of amounts such as 1/3 of 9 or to recognise/understand fractions and their notation? the pdf appears to match the latter x

 

the latter! I thought smarties would be a good way for them to understand it, need I still manipulate the amount of smarties in a box for this?

 

ah, yes i would still manipulate the numbers of smarties else u'll be going into tenths and beyond,i suppose it also depends on the ability of you class.

NB:
'I think I was a bit vague with the LI, it's To be able to find simple unit fractions of numbers.'

I'm not sure you objective mathes the activity though, should it be 'recognise simple fractions that are several parts of a whole'?

 

I took it from a maths scheme, it's confusing me too! Your LI seems much clearer.

I think at this rate the smarties are going to confuse me too!

I've looked at the SOW again and for the lesson the children need to work out the fraction of a given number, the more I look at it though the more I think I should just stick to the basics of fractions are several part of a whole. The children are only middle set yr 3.

 

how much have they done on fractions so far? if you are doing fractions of numbers i wouldnt use the smarties, multi link cubes can be just as effective. e.g 1/3 of 9, get the children to split the number 9 into 3 parts so they understand each part as a fraction of 9, they then have to say the value of one part. if u wanted to make it more exciting you could use sweets insted of cubes but i would suggest wrapped sweets that do not melt easily!

if you are sticking to understanding unit fractions then i would use a cake/pizza idea as it someting the children are familar with and they need a concrete image, as fractions are quite abstract.
hope this helps x

 

folding paper into halfs and quarters can also be effective. Give the child a picture of a pizza split into thirds, quarters etc and ask them to add tomato to 1/2 the pizza or add tomato to 2/3 of the pizza etc

 

if you want to be really fun - take in real pizza!

 

Can I email you PW?!!

 

princesswigwam@hotmail.com

 

I would use the learning outcome from the new strategy as your learning objective to make it very simple for the children. I can statments are very clear and good for AFL because you can ask the question at the end of the lesson and the will tell you whether they know it or not.

"I can find 1/2 and 1/4 shapes is Block B Unit 2 outcome for fractions."
or use these

Find unit fractions of numbers and quantities (e.g. 1/3 , 1/2 ,1/4 and 1/6 of 12 litres)

I can find 1/2 or 1/4 of a measurement
Unit D1

I can find fractions of numbers by using division
Unit E1

I can use division to find 1/4 ,1/4 ,1/5 and 1/6 of a measurement
Unit D2