Sunday, October 23, 2011

Dog with a Bone Fractions Game

I chose this dog to hook you into this Fractions Game.    The game board below is the coloring sheet to record the fraction spins.  This is game where the object is to draw fraction cards or spin fraction amounts and color the squares until you fill up a WHOLE bar.  Then the kids yell, "I have a whole bar."  At that time you reward them with a whole piece of candy.


                                                               
   


  The above is a fractions game sheet you may copy.  I am proud of myself for learning how to build it in Photoshop, instead of Word, so that I may give it to you to copy.  You can build one in Word also by making a text box, double clicking on it to get the drawing tool bar, and changing the thickness of the lines. In Word, I made a line from the same drawing tool bar.  You can copy and paste these lines to make fractions.  I copied and pasted them into Photoshop, so that I could save them as a jpeg or image and insert it into this blog.
     I label the fraction bars at the bottom of each with the whole amount.  The first label would be 3/3, second 6/6, etc.
    Each student receives their own sheet, unless you want to save paper and have them working in pairs.  The object of the game is to draw cards, or spin fraction amounts to add up to one whole. 
     You could play against the class on the Smart Board spinner.  Put up 6 spinners labeled to match the fraction bars on the Smart Board.  If you don't have one, make six spinners per group.  You could make the circles, run them off on cardstock, then laminate them.  Spinners made with brads and paper arrows DON'T WORK.  Mount them on cardboard.  Go to Office Depot or Staples.  Ask for binder screws.  If you don't know what they are...go to Michael's.  Look at the new scrapbooks.  They hold the pages together.  These binder screws make FABULOUS spinners with paint sticks or craft sticks.  Make a hole in the stick.  Paint an arrow on it, and you have a nifty spinner. 
    I have also made sets of cards to match the fractions.  You need four sets per team.  Mix them up in cute little boxes that you make for teams.  The kids take turns drawing a fraction card out of the box and coloring in a square on the appropriate bar.  In my math lab, I used the cards and made the kids show me how they added up to make one whole.
For example, they might have drawn a 1/6 card + 3/6 card + 2/6 .  They win a piece of candy for coloring the WHOLE bar.  They can keep playing and winning more candy as time allows.  Remember, they are playing against others, so there are not that many winners. 
      If you use the spinners, have a recording slip for them to record what each spin was worth.  A 5th's spinner might have 1/5, 2/5, 3/5, 4/5 on it.  You should hear them laugh when they get a 4/5 because it's almost a whole bar.

Happy Coloring

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