Introducing Fractions

Today we introduced the idea of fractions, and explored what that word might mean and where we see examples of fractions. The students were asked to create examples of different fractions (1/2, 1/4, 1/3, 1/6, 1/8), without really spending much time explaining what fractions are or what they look like. This is what learning through inquiry is all about. Students were making mistakes, learning from each other, changing their answers, and finding things out as they worked. As a teacher, exercises like these are very insightful because they give you a great idea of where your students are in terms of understanding. We plan on looking at our answers later on in the unit and comparing how our understanding has changed over time. 

Here are some of the examples students created: