Hello teachers! Welcome to today’s blog post, where we will dive into the fascinating world of fractions, tailored specifically for 1st and 2nd-grade classrooms. Fractions may seem daunting at first, but fear not! We’re here to guide you through partitioning, understanding shares, and mastering fractions in a fun and engaging way. In this post, we’ll explore various tools and resources to introduce the skills effectively, including digital games, anchor charts, and printable activities. So, let’s dive in!
Digital Games for Fractions
With fractions, practice is going to be key. Students will need to by applying skills for partitioning shapes and identifying fractions in a variety of ways. Digital games and activities are a great form of practice because it is no-prep for you and students enjoy them! These are some of my favorite digital activities for young learners:
Instructional Lessons & Activities
- Pizza Panda– Math Playground
- Fraction Fling– ABCya!
- Fraction Farm– Room Recess
- SplashLearn- Fraction Games
- Education.com- All Fraction Games
- Mr. Nussbaum- Fraction Games
Anchor Charts for Fractions
Anchor charts are a great initial form of instruction and a way to continue whole-group practice. I recommend using three important anchor charts for an introduction to the topic.
1: Partitioning Shapes: This is an anchor chart showing students what partitioning is, the vocabulary of partitions, how to partition shapes, etc. This simple anchor chart has definitions and examples for rows, columns, and units at the top. It helps to color code these at first, too. Then, beneath the definitions and examples, you will see 6 blank rectangles ready for partition practice. If you laminate this poster, you can have students practice again and again.
2: Fractions Intro: This anchor chart will help students understand that the “units” or pieces they created in partitioning are fractions of a whole. The most commonly used fractions (especially for younger grades) are halves, thirds, and fourths. Showing students how to label the fractions in number and word form is important, too.
3: Pizza Fractions: Pizza (or pie) can connect students and fractions. I always liked to use a large pizza to show different examples of fractions. With this anchor chart, simply draw a large pizza, laminate the chart, and use the poster for various fraction examples. Using a dry-erase marker, you and the students can mark the pizza to show fractions as many times as you need.
Printable Fraction Practice
Now, students will also need to practice in printable form. This will allow you to check their understanding, using the formative assessments in your planning and grouping for continued learning.
As you can see in the photos above, worksheets assessing specific skills within the geometry and fraction standards will help you determine which parts of the process students need extension. Starting with the very first step, partitioning shapes, you will be able to see if students understand rows, columns, and units. You will know if they can equally divide wholes. Then, students can practice identifying fractions, creating fractions, etc.
With printable practice, you can use errors and misconceptions to help you design your reteaching activities. So, if you have several students making similar mistakes, use that to create a small group and have activities specific to that skill they need.
Recommended Resources
Are you looking for 1st or 2nd-grade geometry worksheets to help your students? These worksheets cover 2D and 3d shape attributes, partitioning shapes, and introduction to fractions. The sets are Common Core aligned to the 1st and 2nd-grade Geometry domains. The “worksheets” also come in a digital format for paperless practice. Click the buttons below to get a closer look:
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