Fraction Circles Level A

This week I've added a new product to my TpT store (and it's on sale today, May 27th!)  It's a set of task cards that can be used as a logic puzzle or a center activity.  There are 45 challenge cards that work in conjunction with rainbow fraction circles that you can find at your local teacher's supply store.  I've also included a set of printable fraction circles that you can use instead of purchasing them.  But if you already have some on hand, then you are ready to play with the Fraction Circles Task Cards!

These cards are designed to familiarize students with fraction circles.  Level A has fairly basic challenges appropriate for grades 1-3 (depending on student ability).  Each card should be modeled with the fraction circles and solved by the students.  It's a very tactile way to engage fraction learning!  Some of the challenges include work with equivalency, building circles with given pieces, bigger and smaller fractions, and patterning (just for fun, not really a fraction related concept).

Above, you can see the 45 cards printed out on card stock.  I didn't laminate mine, but if you have a lot of students using them, you might want to either laminate or use plastic sleeves.  This first challenge is a patterning challenge and has been solved using the store bought manipulatives.

When the student has finished modeling the problem, they can turn the card over and see if their answer matches the one on the back.

Here are some samples of some of the other challenges cards.

And their answers!  I tried to used different verbiage to help students grow accustomed to some of the many ways fractions can be talked about and written.

Here is an example of the printed fraction circles in action.  I printed these on card stock and laminated them with a sticky lamination sheet from Fellowes.  This allowed me to cut right up against the edges of the pieces.  I don't have a heat laminator so I don't know if you can cut close with those or not.

Cutting as close as possible to the edges allows the pieces to fit snugly together and helps students to visualize the problems more accurately. 

Here you can see the answer.  I've offset the pieces so you can see the whole circle underneath, which is how I've modeled the answer on the back of the card as well.

This product does require a color printer.  Mine isn't all that great and I found that the reds don't print very brilliantly, so they almost look orange!  But I assure you, they are quite bright in the pdfs, so with a good printer, they should print nicely.  Card stock and lamination are also highly recommended.

For homeschoolers, I think this would be a great Workbox Activity.  It is a fairly gentle introduction to fractions, so it would be fun for younger kids to play with while mom is busy with the older kids too.

Don't forget that today is Memorial Day and everything in my store is 10% off!  I am also donating all profits to the Red Cross for the Moore Tornado Relief, so you will not only get a discount, but you can help others at the same time!

And don't forget to check out the blog hop (look at the bottom of this post) to see a list of other sellers donating their profits to Moore as well.

Hope you are enjoying your long weekend!