5 Quick & Easy Fraction Ideas
Are you looking for some easy ideas to add to your fractions unit? Try one of these five fractions activities to add some fun to your second or third grade lesson plans Super Teacher!
Fraction Idea #1: Super Easy Fraction Bars
Do you have the fancy plastic fraction bars? These are awesome, but usually too spendy for every student to have a set.
Instead, use a page of paper fraction bars as a resource for students throughout your unit.
No need to cut them. We’re talking super easy here.
Just label each bar, color if you’d like, and use as a visual when comparing or visualizing fractions.
You can automatically download a FREE copy of my very simple fraction bar template HERE.
Fraction Idea #2: Relate Everything to Food
If kiddos can eat it (especially if it’s sweet!), they will (usually) remember it.
During your unit on fractions, relate as many of the lessons as you can to food.
Here are a few examples:
- When teaching parts of a whole, model using Hershey bars, apples, pizzas, brownies, or oranges.
- When teaching parts of a group, model using m&ms, Skittles, Smarties, or mixed bags of snacks (Chex Mix works great!)
- When working on identifying fractions on a number line, use licorice. Students can use a single Twizzler as a model for 0-1 and then move a small candy along the Twizzler to show different fractions. Keep the Twizzlers for your measurement unit. They are great for modeling a non-standard strategy to estimate a foot.
- Every Monday, check out the Crumbl Cookie website to see what their six flavors of the week are. Then write fractions using details about the flavors. (For example: 4/6 of the flavors have frosting, 2/6 of the cookies have chocolate chips in the dough, and 2/6 have special treats on top). This works well for reducing fraction as well, since there will always be six flavors.
Don’t feel like you have to buy a bunch of candy, or become a brownie baker.
Even just the mention of candy perks up those little 2nd and 3rd grade listening ears. 🙂
If you’re looking for some fractions books, like the Hershey’s one above, you can find them at the Super Teacher Books for Math Amazon Recommendation List here.
Fraction Idea #3: Math Mosaics
All you need for this activity is a piece of large art paper for every student, and lots of one-inch squares of different colored construction paper.
Have students create a picture (we did self portraits) using the squares.
Then have them write the fraction for each color of square they used in their math mosaic.
Have them count the total number of squares used. This will be their denominator.
Then, each color they used in their mosaic can be totaled to give them different numerators (6/45 red squares).
See more pictures of students’ finished math mosaics at the blog HERE.
Fraction Idea #4: Ready, Set, Show! Fractions Freebie
This paperless math game comes in PowerPoint & Google Slides versions and includes 15 Fractions on a number line questions.
Download, add white boards, and you’re ready to go!
Fraction Idea #5: Ready, Set, Show! Fractions Introduction and/or Review
If you’re looking for more like the freebie, you can grab the entire Ready, Set,Show! Fractions Review from one of the Super Teacher stores.
You can use this activity to introduce concepts throughout your fractions unit, or as an end of unit review.
This show includes 120 fractions problems are organized into the following sections:
- Student intro and instructions
- Practice question
- 20 identifying fractions as part of a whole problems
- 20 identifying fractions as part of a group problems
- 29 identifying fractions on a number line problems
- 16 equivalent fraction problems (fraction bar visuals)
- 10 equivalent fraction problems (number line visuals)
- 10 equivalent fraction with like numerator/denominator problems (no visuals)
- 15 challenge questions (mixed-numbers, comparing fractions without fraction bar visuals, comparing fractions with unlike denominators)
- Editable teacher slides and instructions (in PowerPoint version only)
You can find Ready, Set, Show! Fractions at the Super Teacher blog here or at TpT here.
I hope these ideas help add an easy activity or two to your fractions unit.
Have a fab day Super Teacher,
