Exploring fractions using rope

Phase 1: Identify the attribute

Wow! The activity from Charles Lovitt inspired our lessons for the week. After our initial provocation having three students place 2/5 on a piece of rope and our class discussion.

Phase 2: Learning to measure

Students sorted themselves into teams and were given rope (each group had a slightly different sized piece of rope) and a pack of fractions. They had to place the fraction on the rope and justify why it should be placed there and prove if they were right or wrong.

Note that we had previously worked on fractions through money, shape and our abstract art. It was interesting to see the students trying to make connections (or lack of) between those activities and the number lines.

Each day our maths together consisted of this activity with different prompts to increase the difficulty. Such as: improper fractions, decimals, percentages, mixed packs.