Mathematical Monday {Fraction Water Lab}

I took a little vacation from blogging last week.  Life was busy and I just couldn't get caught up, I still am not caught up with everything!  I am excited to share the fraction water lab my students did last week.  This idea came from my girl Mandy over at The 4th Grade Journey.  I remember the post she did last year about this activity and knew I had to do it this year!

What you will need...{Everything is also listed in her FREEBIE}

 Containers of water for each team of students.

Four clear plastic cups and a measuring cup for each team.

What to do...

Prior to the activity I labeled the two of the cups with our benchmark fractions, one of the plastic cups with 1 cup and another one 1/2 cup. Students then filled these cups to the lines I marked.

I then added food coloring to the 1 cup and 1/2 cups of water.  Students then lined the cups up 0, 1/2, and 1 on their desk.  This represented our number line.  Students filled the fourth cup with water to represent the fraction on their sheet, also provided by Mandy. 

Once the cup was filled students then compared the fraction to the benchmark fractions to determine what is was closest to.  This was a great visual and real world connection!

As students worked they completed their assignment.  They were required to note which benchmark fraction the fraction was closest to, draw a picture to demonstrate their thinking, classify the fractions, and then create a number line to represent each fraction.  There are SO MANY skills this activity covered it was fantastic!

This is an AMAZING freebie in Mandy's store!  I hope you are able to use it in your classroom, we had a lot of fun "playing" with fractions.

Grab this FREEBIE HERE!

An InLinkz Link-up