Slice It Up! (Part One)

It’s pizza time! Students will be introduced to the concept of partitioning shapes to create fractions that demonstrate halves, fourths, and eighths. This lesson is the first of two lessons that address second grade fraction concepts.

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Learning Objectives

Students will be able to partition shapes to create halves, fourths, and eighths. Students will be able to recognize differences between halves, fourths, and eighths. Students will be able to apply knowledge about halves, fourths, and eighths to recognize these fractions in differing shapes, such as how to create halves in a rectangle.

Introduction

(5 minutes)

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Guided Practice Circles

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Independent Practice Squares

Teacher Modeling Fractions SMART Board File

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Teacher Modeling Manipulatives

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Teacher Modeling Manipulatives Key

Invite students to explore different ways to divide a pizza so that they can make different fractions, which are parts of a whole.
Take out the first example of the “whole” pizza. Point out that the pizza is not cut apart yet, so there is one whole.
Take out the second example of the pizza cut into halves. Ask the students how this pizza is different from the first pizza. Students should recognize that the pizzas are equal in size, but one pizza is cut into slices and the other pizza is not cut into slices. Display the words "half" and "halves."
Proceed to the pizzas that contain fourths and eighths, following the same procedure, specifically naming the fourths and eighths. Display the words "fourths" and "eighths" as they correspond to the fractional parts.
Tell the students that they are going to be learning how to partition, or cut, pieces from a whole to make fractions.

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