A Learning Activity is a strategy a teacher chooses to actively
engage students in learning a concept or skill using a digital tool/resource.
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Phase:
Before/Engage
Activity:
Display the problem on the board for the students to see.
Have a student read it aloud and then tell the students they are going to try and solve it.
Give each student three red licorice pieces -- they don't have to be the full length, but they need to be big enough to divide into fourths.
Tell the students to try to solve the problem using the candy pieces. (Remind them not to eat the candy yet!) They can work in groups, partners, or individually.
Watch for conceptual understanding as they work -- students should be dividing each candy piece into fourths and then counting the total number of pieces (12).
If students are struggling, ask questions to help guide their thinking: How much of each licorice piece are we supposed to eat each day? How many of those pieces do we have in one piece of licorice? How many do we have in all three licorice pieces?
After students have had time to work, gather student attention and ask for someone to share his/her thinking. Encourage students to discuss their problem-solving strategies, not just the answer they found.
At the end of the activity, have the students help build the equation on the board for the problem. (3 divided by 1/4 = 12)
Assessment Strategies:
Use informal assessment strategies during this activity. Observe to see if students are building a conceptual understanding of dividing by a unit fraction. At the end of the activity, ask students to show "fist to five" to describe how confident they would be at solving another problem just like this one. Showing a fist means they have zero confidence, one finger means a little confidence, all the way to five fingers and full confidence.
Advanced Preparation:
Requirements for this activity:
a projector/display board to show the problem to the class
three red licorice candy pieces for each student
An alternative option is to print the problem and give a paper copy to each student -- they can cut out the paper version of the licorice from the problem and use those as a model instead of actual candy.
Variation Tips (optional):
This activity can be done with other manipulatives (string, chocolate bars, pretzel sticks, straws, etc.)
Notes or Recommendations (optional):
This activity can be used as an introduction to a lesson on dividing whole numbers by a fraction.