Students engage in an activity where they try to outsmart an alien from the planet of Fractional who is coming to their class to take one-half of their candy. The poor alien does not really understand the concept of one-half and thinks that it means taking one piece of something no matter how many equal pieces the whole is divided. The teacher encourages the intelligent Earthlings to outsmart the devious alien by making equivalent fractions for one-half on their geoboards. When the alien arrives, he looks at the fractional pieces and is confused. He sees the geoboard divided into six pieces and takes only one, thinking that he has one-half.
Students then work at stations to gain more experiences with fractions.
They play a game with a spinner and paper plate pieces to try to be the first person to make one complete plate or pizza. Students also pretend they work in a ribbon factory as they respond to customer complaints about receiving the wrong amounts of ribbon. They utilize their knowledge of fractions to correctly measure the ribbon and thus satisfy the customers. Activity Sheets are located at the bottom of the .pdf Lesson Plan. Ribbon Factory Procedure Tell the class that you are trying to find ways to cut a peanut butter sandwich in half.