Co-Teaching Candy Math Fractions

So my first lesson I taught for my students was a math fraction lesson. This was a whole group lesson for both my 4^th and 5^th graders. This was an introduction into fractions.

Materials:

M&M’s (we used the pretzel ones)

Hersey’s chocolate candy bars

Paper plates

Little Dixie cups

Our students already sit in pods, which is great, for these types of lessons, students then can work as a group and collaborate.

First we gave each student pod a paper plate and a Hersey’s Chocolate bar. Hersey’s chocolate bars are split perfectly into 12 pieces so it works out great for teaching about something being a whole, half and so on.

*Also we did not use it for this less BUT there is a book out there it is called The Hersey’s Milk Chocolate Fraction Book, by Jerry Pallota and Rob Bolster. CHECK IT OUT! It’s a really great book!

Anyways…..

So then we asked students as a group to make fractions into 1/2 , then ¼, 1/8 and so on. Then we asked students on their own to create their own fractions. Some students got really creative with this and drew a line down the center of the plate showing what was a part of the numerator and what was a part of denominator.

After we did the fractions with the Hersey’s Chocolate Bars and had a discussion with the students we then gave students a Dixie cup full of M&Ms and asked students to create fractions. Some students divided them equally and then would say I have 5 red out of my 10 M&Ms.  Or as a ground compared the different colors and so on.

I personally liked giving the students this type of freedom because, it helped them better understand fractions and collaborate and build off of one another’s ideas!

This Candy Fraction Lesson is a great introduction lesson for anyone introducing fractions to their students and want to make it fun and memorable.