What Are Equivalent Fractions?

Explicit Instruction/Teacher modeling

• Teach the vocabulary words by showing the Vocabulary Cards for equivalent and fraction.
• Explain that equivalent means that something is the same or equal to something else. Tell students that you have half of an orange for lunch. Draw a circle with two equal sides. Shade one side in to represent the part of the orange that you have. Add that you also brought a half of a sandwich, and draw a rectangle with two equal sides. Shade one side in to represent the part that you have. Point out that these pictures are equivalent because they both show 1/2.
• Review that 1/2 is a fraction. The fraction shows a part of a whole. The one represents what you have out of the whole. The two represents how many equal parts are in the whole.
• Return to the first page of the Fractions: What Do You Notice? worksheet. Model thinking aloud about the fractions by using the sentence frame, "These fractions are equivalent because ____." Label the fractions for each of the pictures.

Guided Practice

• Display the second page of the Fractions: What Do You Notice? worksheet on the document camera.
• Engage the class in thinking about similarities and differences and ask, "Which one doesn't belong?" Prompt learners to think about the following questions:
  • What value is shown in each picture? (Sentence stem: This picture shows ____.)
  • What shapes do you see? (Sentence stem: I see ____.)
  • How are these two pictures similar? How are they different? (Sentence stem: These pictures are similar/different because ____.)
  • Which three pictures are most alike? Why? (Sentence stem: These three pictures are most alike because ____.)
  • Why doesn't this picture belong with the others? (Sentence stem: This picture doesn't belong with the others because ____.)
• Explain that the square with three equal parts doesn't belong because the rest of the pictures have four equal parts. It also only has two of the parts shaded in, which makes the fraction 2/3. The other three pictures have three shaded parts, which makes the fractions 3/4.

Group work time

• Divide the class into four small groups and pass out the Equivalent Fractions: Which One Doesn't Belong? worksheet to each student.
• Assign each group one of the problems on the worksheet to complete. Tell learners that they all need to be prepared to explain to a different group how they agreed on which pictures belong together and justify which item did not fit.
• Give groups time to work through their problem. Then, create new groups. Make sure each group has a student that can explain each of the problems on the worksheet. Instruct them to share their thinking and prompt students as needed with the following questions and sentence stems:
  • What value is shown in each picture? (Sentence stem: This picture shows ____.)
  • What shapes do you see? (Sentence stem: I see ____.)
  • How are these two pictures similar? How are they different? (Sentence stem: These pictures are similar/different because ____.)
  • Which three pictures are most alike? Why? (Sentence stem: These pictures are most alike because ____.)
  • Why doesn't this picture belong with the others? (Sentence stem: This picture doesn't belong with the others because ____.)