Use Factors to Find Equivalent Fractions
10 min
Narrative
This Warm-up prompts students to carefully analyze and compare representations of fractions. In making comparisons, students have a reason to use language precisely (MP6). The activity also enables the teacher to hear the terminologies students know and how they talk about fractional parts, the size of fractions, and equivalent fractions.
Launch
- Groups of 2
- Display the image.
- “Pick 3 that go together. Be ready to share why they go together.”
- 1 minute: quiet think time
Teacher Instructions
- “Discuss your thinking with your partner.”
- 2–3 minutes: partner discussion
- Share and record responses.
Student Task
Which 3 go together?
Sample Response
Sample response:
- A, B, and C go together because they use 1 in their labels.
- A, B, and D go together because they are diagrams that represent fractions.
- A, C, and D go together because they show fractions that are 41 or equivalent to 41.
- B, C, and D go together because they show fourths as the unit fraction or the smallest fractional part.
Activity Synthesis (Teacher Notes)
- Display the images.
- “Where is 41 on each diagram? How do you know?”
- Highlight strategies students share by recording their ideas on the images.
- “Today, we’ll use number lines and partitioning to help us write equivalent fractions and to tell if two fractions are equivalent.”
Standards
Addressing
- 4.NF.1·Explain why a fraction a/b is equivalent to a fraction (n × a)/(n × b) by using visual fraction models, with attention to how the number and size of the parts differ even though the two fractions themselves are the same size. Use this principle to recognize and generate equivalent fractions.
- 4.NF.A.1·Explain why a fraction <span class="math">\(a/b\)</span> is equivalent to a fraction <span class="math">\((n \times a)/(n \times b)\)</span> by using visual fraction models, with attention to how the number and size of the parts differ even though the two fractions themselves are the same size. Use this principle to recognize and generate equivalent fractions.
20 min
15 min
Knowledge Components
All skills for this lesson
No KCs tagged for this lesson
Use Factors to Find Equivalent Fractions
10 min
Narrative
This Warm-up prompts students to carefully analyze and compare representations of fractions. In making comparisons, students have a reason to use language precisely (MP6). The activity also enables the teacher to hear the terminologies students know and how they talk about fractional parts, the size of fractions, and equivalent fractions.
Launch
- Groups of 2
- Display the image.
- “Pick 3 that go together. Be ready to share why they go together.”
- 1 minute: quiet think time
Teacher Instructions
- “Discuss your thinking with your partner.”
- 2–3 minutes: partner discussion
- Share and record responses.
Student Task
Which 3 go together?
Sample Response
Sample response:
- A, B, and C go together because they use 1 in their labels.
- A, B, and D go together because they are diagrams that represent fractions.
- A, C, and D go together because they show fractions that are 41 or equivalent to 41.
- B, C, and D go together because they show fourths as the unit fraction or the smallest fractional part.
Activity Synthesis (Teacher Notes)
- Display the images.
- “Where is 41 on each diagram? How do you know?”
- Highlight strategies students share by recording their ideas on the images.
- “Today, we’ll use number lines and partitioning to help us write equivalent fractions and to tell if two fractions are equivalent.”
Standards
Addressing
- 4.NF.1·Explain why a fraction a/b is equivalent to a fraction (n × a)/(n × b) by using visual fraction models, with attention to how the number and size of the parts differ even though the two fractions themselves are the same size. Use this principle to recognize and generate equivalent fractions.
- 4.NF.A.1·Explain why a fraction <span class="math">\(a/b\)</span> is equivalent to a fraction <span class="math">\((n \times a)/(n \times b)\)</span> by using visual fraction models, with attention to how the number and size of the parts differ even though the two fractions themselves are the same size. Use this principle to recognize and generate equivalent fractions.