Covering fractions

Rather than asking students to count pieces that are coloured, the traditional method which is not focussing on the proportional reasoning aspect of fractions, here is a set of cards that will help to develop the idea of fair (equal) sharing. Print the pieces you want to focus on (halves, thirds and quarters to start with) but there are many more, including sevenths! Pieces have different shapes - rectangles, squares and triangles. Start students activity by noticing the pieces. Students can record the letter, number of pieces and shape or take one piece and estimate how many would fit into the whole. Challenge: Are students able to create fractions in other shapes (eg halves as long as they have two equal pieces). Extension see if students can cover whole with as many pieces that they need with 2 different fractions, 3 different fractions and so on (see third last page) and then perhaps write the mathematical sentence that goes with it (eg 1/2 + 2/4 = 1 which is 3 pieces, fractions: halves and quarters)
I print sets on coloured paper, with 4 or so colours of paper, multiple set pieces won’t be mixed if hand out to students in alternating colour (eg pink, blue, green, purple: the next student should be far enough away from the previous student who received pink pieces.)
Let me know how you go in class :) C