Tools 4 NC Teachers | Math Science Partnership Grant Website



Kendall’s Candy CompanyIn this lesson, students compose fractions out of parts and explore the addition of fractions by creating candy bars with connecting cubes. NC Mathematics Standard:Number and Operations - FractionsNC.4.NF.3 Understand and justify decompositions of fractions with denominators of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 100. Understand addition and subtraction of fractions as joining and separating parts referring to the same whole. Decompose a fraction into a sum of unit fractions and a sum of fractions with the same denominator in more than one way using area models, length models, and equations. Add and subtract fractions, including mixed numbers with like denominators, by replacing each mixed number with an equivalent fraction, and/or by using properties of operations and the relationship between addition and subtraction. Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of fractions, including mixed numbers by writing equations from a visual representation of the problem.Supporting Standard:Number and Operations – FractionsNC.4.NF.1 Explain why a fraction is equivalent to another fraction by using area and length fraction models, with attention to how the number and size of the parts differ even though the two fractionsthemselves are the same size.Standards for Mathematical Practice:Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.Reason abstractly and quantitatively.3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.4. Model with mathematics.6. Attend to precision.7. Look for and make use of structure. Student Outcomes: I can compose a fraction from smaller fractions with the same denominator. I can decompose a fraction into an addition equation with smaller fractions with the same denominator.Math Language:additioncomposedecomposedenominatornumerator Materials: Possible Suggestions for Colored Connecting Cubes (attached) multi-link connecting cubesgraph papercoloring materials such as crayons or colored pencilsanchor chart and markersAdvance Preparation: display “Possible Suggestions for Colored Connecting Cubes”Launch:Introduce the Problem (8-10 minutes)Introduce the problem by telling students: In today’s activity, you will build “Love Bug Bars” from different colored connecting cubes. Each color will represent a different flavor of candy. The bars come in different sizes depending on the number of candies the buyer wants. Create a bar of various “flavors” and record it in your math notebook. At the company, keep in mind you must allow buyers to pick out all the flavors that will be in the bar. This way each bar is different and the buyer can get exactly what they want. After that you will write an equation to show fractional size of each flavor in your Love Bug Bar. Today you will make a bar with 8 total connecting cubes.Provide students with connecting cubes, graph paper, and coloring materials. Explore:Solving the Problem (15-20 minutes)Allow students time to work individually to create a special candy called a Love Bug Bar for Kendall’s Candy Company. Students can build the bars with connecting cubes and then record their final creations on graph paper or a sheet of notebook paper. They should label each part of the bar with a fraction. Encourage students to create as many candy bars as they can during the allotted time.Example:Blueberry: 1/8 + 1/8 = 2/8Lime: 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 = 3/8Orange: 1/8 + 1/8 + 1/8 = 3/82/8 + 3/8 + 3/8 = 8/8Carefully select students to present their Love Bug Bars to the class. Look for students who modeled the Love Bug with correct fractional parts. Discuss:Discussion of the Solutions (10-15 minutes)Bring the class together to discuss their bars. Have selected students share their strategies for solving fractional parts that equal the whole 8/8. The student answers should be in fraction form. The discussion should always focus on the fractional amount of each flavor rather than the number of pieces of each flavor. As students tell you the fraction for each flavor, record the fractions on the board. Ask:What do you notice about the relationship between (flavor) and (flavor)?Is there another way to write this equation?Which flavor of candy is included most in this bar? Least?How much of your bar is flavored blueberry? Cherry? Banana? Lime? etc. Relate the activity to the standard - Decompose a fraction into a sum of fractions with the same denominator in more than one way using area models and equations and have students summarize what they have learned. Evaluation of Student Understanding:Informal Evaluation:Observe and monitor students as they create the bars. How are they making sense of the fractional parts? Are the students understanding that the parts are not just pieces but parts of a whole?Formal Evaluation/Exit TicketPresent students with a created candy bar and ask them to decompose it.Meeting the Needs of the Range of Learners:Interventions: Start with making bars with only 2 or 4 pieces with either 2 or 3 colors. Create a class chart so that students can visually see the parts adding up to 8/8.Relate this to what they know about the math facts that add up to 8.Extensions: Students can make Love Bug Bars of different sizes. (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, or 12 pieces)Students can explore making composing and decomposing fractions using pattern blocks.Students need multiple copies of the pattern blocks: hexagon, trapezoid, rhombus, and triangle OR they can use the website: . Students should explore all of the different ways they can use the pattern blocks to build a hexagon and write it as an equation in terms of 6ths. Example: Making a hexagon from a trapezoid, a rhombus, and 1 triangle could be written as 1 = 3/6 + 2/6 + 1/6. Students could treat 2 joined hexagons as a whole and do the same activity so that the values would be: 1 trapezoid: ?, 1 rhombus: 1/6, triangle: 1/12. Ask students to make a bar with 12 pieces: ? of it is red, 1/3 of it is blue, and the rest of it is yellow. How much of it is yellow?Possible Misconceptions/Suggestions:Possible MisconceptionsSuggestionsStudents are struggling to correctly make a Love Bug Bar.Ask what would a bar look like with only 2 pieces? Can you make an example with me?Students have made a Love Bug Bar but are struggling to correctly determine the fractional amount.Allow student to determine how many total pieces are in the bar? How many are <color>? How do you use those numbers in a fraction to show how much is <color>?”Possible Flavors for the Colored Connecting CubesRed – CherryBlue – BlueberryLight Green – LimeWhite – MarshmallowBrown – ChocolateBlack – LicoriceYellow – BananaPink – Cotton CandyDark Green – AppleOrange - Orange ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download