Dun Dun Dunnnn. Fractions. *Freebie!

Today was exactly 18,000 times better than yesterday.

I didn’t post yesterday
cause I didn’t want to sound bitter
and anything at all I could’ve written yesterday
would have been bitter.

But today was a GREAT day,
despite two office referrals for hitting other kids on the bus.
(Not me. My kids)

This is what we did today that went so well.
We’ve been working on author’s purpose using my Author’s Purpose Pack.
Today, during Reader’s Workshop, we reviewed the four author’s purposes we’ve been working with
*to explain how
*to inform
*to persuade
*to entertain.

I put kids into partners and we set up a tree map with the four headings.

Then I gave them a sheet from my pack that had a short text from each of these four purposes. The topic was the same (birds) but there was a story about birds, a procedural on how to take care of birds, an informative piece about birds, and a persuasive piece convincing you to buy a bird.

I read each piece out loud and had the kids talk to their partners about what evidence they could find to support the author’s purpose.
We sorted.
We checked.
We did well!

So for partner practice, I had them practice the same skill with other pieces; these were about snowmen (how to make a snowman, information about snowmen, a story about a snowman, and a persuasive about building a snowman.

I was so relieved- as I listened to the conversations kids had with their buddies, I was finally able to find evidence of my teaching.

I heard things like
Well, the author’s not asking the reader to DO anything, so it’s not to persuade.
I see a character, so I think it’s an entertaining story.
Oh! These are steps on how to take care of a bird, so it’s to explain how.

I almost cried.

But then, later in math, I almost cried for a different reason.

Fractions.

This standard is introduced before third grade, but when we started working with fractions on Monday, (most of) my kids stared at me like I was speaking Greek.
Or Math, which I have found is a new language to them as well.

So I needed them to get some basic practice with identifying fractions and using equal parts in one whole to identify denominators.

So I spent some time putting together a fractions foldable for them to sort and identify fractional parts of wholes. This is what it looked like.

I was hoping to help kids use it to hunt for examples of fractions in anything we did during math.

For example, after they finished a handout on fractions, they could cut it up and sort them into halves, third, fourths, etc., and glue them into their foldable.

It’s a great fast finisher activity, too, once you’ve got it all set up!

So, some of us are pretty good at fractions.

Some of us were writing some pretty weird stuff in this foldable, despite the modeling.

So we’re going to spend tomorrow in two groups – I kinda know what’s goin on

…and I kinda don’t.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

In case you’re interested (purpose: to persuade) I am posting my Furry Friends Fractions Pack, which includes instructions and pieces to cut out for the giant fractions foldable above. It’s a big one – 46 pages of fractiony goodness.

 Grab it at TPT!

And here’s a rectangle fractions freebie for you.
Grab it at TPT.