Pre-lesson preparation

Have the resources printed out so that each group, or table, has one copy of eachof the fraction strips. Have the presentation opened on the classroom display. Workbooks should be available electronically or in paper format for groups or individuals. Have the Martys for use charged and ready to act.

Warm-up

Share with learners the learning objectives and success criteria for the lesson (slide 2 from the presentation).

Display images of ‘wholes’ and then fraction displays of the same whole on slide 3. This is to get learners quickly identifying the numerator and denominator or both the whole and the other fractions. Toward the end, the slides will quickly show and hide the fractional displays after the whole is shown to encourage a bit of energy and focus. 

Slide 4 will show several fraction displays for learners to quickly identify.

Get learning

Once learners have had the opportunity to quickly identify the different representations for fractions, ask them about combining them, “What if we took the muffins, or other item, from one tray and added it to the muffins of another tray? What fraction of the tray would we have?

Each image will show the numerical fraction and the name of the fraction. This is to reinforce how to write and how to say how much of the fraction is shown. The demonstrations for this part of the lesson are on slides 5 to 7.

At some point in the lesson, learners will need to mark the inch increments on their fraction strips. Slide 8 in the presentation models this process.

Slides 9 to 12 model how to use the fraction strips for addition. Toward the end of the demonstrations, the sums will exceed the whole. Take time to talk about what is shown on the slide and how to name the result: either an improper fraction or a mixed number.

Learners might ask why the whole fraction strips are different sizes, answer that this is because Marty can only take so big a step. Look at the example that is cut into eighths and ask if learners think Marty could take a step to get half of that shape. 

Time for Practice

Display Marty showing the examples on a table or other flat surface, to help visualise the fraction count. Ask learners which denominator they want to use when adding. Then ask them which numerators they want to add. Once these values are set in the code (described in the teacher guide), lay down one, or two, of the fraction strips for that denominator to have Marty walk the first addend, pause, and walk the second addend. Limit the addends to proper fractions but allow the sums to be mixed numbers or improper fractions. Slide 15 has an example of Marty in action.

Learners will use their workbooks to add proper fractions. There are three levels of challenge, the real-world picture fractions, the pictorial representations, and the numerical questions.

Cooldown

Bring learners back together to discuss the learning. Ask them if there were any sums they found tricky to figure out. Ask them if they noticed anything about the size of Marty’s steps as you added the fractions.

Suggested questions you might ask:

• When you added the fractions with different denominators, what did you notice about the size of each part?
• What do you think would happen if we kept the whole the same size, each time?

Carry out any end of lesson routines.