Fraction Fun for Monday Made It

Well, last Monday Made It was just a few posts ago (sorry) but it's time again for February's Monday Made It.  Boy, does time fly!  Cheers to Tara, from 4th Grade Frolics, for continuing to host Monday Made It throughout the school year.  I must admit, it is the one linky party that I simply can't resist.  No matter how hectic life gets...I just have to link up!

Today we started our fractions unit.  So, my Monday Made It focuses mostly on....you guessed it...fractions!

On Wednesday we are going to learn how to estimate fractional amounts using benchmark fractions.  This is usually tricky for some of my kiddos so each year I fill up water bottles with water and food coloring to use as a visual tool.  This year, I decided to fill the bottles with Crystal Light.  I did this for two reasons.  One, because I forgot to buy more food coloring.  Two, because after Wednesday's lesson I plan on drinking them!  Crystal Light is one of the few things that I can drink without my blood sugar spiking...and enjoy!

Today we created these adorable fraction books from the fabulous Amy Lemons.  I put a little spin on them.  Rather than turn them into books, we spread out the pages a little so that you can see each page of fractions.  Students can reference this lovely book throughout our fractions unit.

This fraction book will definitely come in handy on Thursday when we start equivalent fractions!  You can easily use a piece of paper to line up the equivalent fractions.

Purchase Amy Lemon's fraction book and then snag the template I used to line up all the pages here!

Have you seen Fourth Grade Flippers amazing Monster Fractions Centers?  We will be using these fun centers and games throughout our fraction unit.  My favorite is the Monster Half Stack.  I have it laminated and ready to go for the day we cover comparing fractions.  Students play with a partner to sort fractions into two piles: greater than 1/2 and less than 1/2.  The monster theme is absolutely adorable!

I have a few fraction products in the works.  However, one of my New Year's Resolutions is to try out all my products before I post them on Teachers Pay Teachers.  So, I can't share them until after my students have used them!  Check back though...I plan on taking lots of pictures of our fractions unit and I will definitely have lots to share with you!

Last but not least, I had to revamp our math centers.  We have had a few additions to our class so our groupings have been getting a little crowded.  I also needed a quick way to be able to rotate students through centers and it seems that each day we have less and less time to spend on them.  So, modeled after my reading center wheel, we now have a math center wheel!

I'll share more details about my math centers in a future post!

Don't forget to check out all the other Monday Made It's!