Fourth graders have been studying fractions and building on their prior experience with fractions in second and third grade. They have been learning to create equivalent fractions, to simplify fractions and most recently, to convert improper fractions to mixed numbers. Having a solid understanding of multiplication and division is a great help in working with fractions.
On Friday fourth graders used Cuisenaire rods for fraction based problem solving tasks. Cuisenaire rods are a collection of rectangular rods, each with a different length. As they worked with the rods, the students made observations about how Cuisenaire rods relate to fractions.
Some of their comments were:
"Four reds are the same length as one brown, so a red is 1/4 the length of a brown."
"The orange is like a whole and all of the other colors are smaller so they are fractions, or parts, of the whole."
"Two light greens are equal to one dark green, so a light green is 1/2 of a dark green."
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