Fractions: Three activities to use in your classroom

Mathematics teacher Holly Millican shares three fun and engaging activities she uses in her classroom to teach and practice fractions.

The first activity is called Fraction Feud, and it's a play on the popular television show. Millican says its best played with a class that's quite quick on their feet. ‘The lower ability classes seem to not like the pressure of having to run up and hit a buzzer quite as much as the higher classes.'

She says the only tools you need to ensure the game is success are the buzzers, which she bought online. ‘Everything else is pretty fluid and you can adapt it to what resources you already have in your room.'

The second activity is called Fraction Bump, a resource that Millican sourced from Teachers Pay Teachers. To play this game, two students get 20 counters each, two dice, and a game mat. She says that if she's using this game to close a lesson, she'll give the students roughly 10 minutes to play and determine the overall winner.

‘If I do use this activity as part of one of my stations throughout the week, then I will generally give them a little more time, especially for the harder ones as well,' she says.

The third activity featured in this video is one Millican typically uses on a Friday and it's called Fraction Jenga. She explains that it's a little different to the original Jenga game that students would be used to.

‘For this version, you select two blocks and an operation card from the face down pile,' she explains. ‘Each block has a fraction on it and once a student has made their selection, they must choose a partner and complete the operation as directed. Now students are to utilise their partner in this instance to help make sure that they've got the right answer and discuss any misconceptions that they might have.'

Millican says she finds this game to be a really good way for students to talk amongst themselves about where they may be going wrong, rather than asking the teacher for assistance.

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