Today was our introductory lesson to our new Maths topic, fractions. Each pupil was given a small box of smarties and they were told that if they did not "give into temptation" and did not eat any until the end of the lesson, they would then be allowed to eat them.
We found out all the words the children knew already about this topic. EG equal parts, share, quarters, bit of, etc
We then watched and discussed a powerpoint where we found out that the top number is called the Numerator and the bottom is the Denominator. We talked about the difference between the whole of something and a bit of, or fraction of, something.
We all were allowed to open our smarties and count the total. Everyone's was slightly different, this would be our Denominator. Then we all sorted the smarties into the different colours and filled in a worksheet about the different fractions. EG There were 3 yellow smarties so the fraction would be 3 over the total number of smarties in the box.
Everyone managed to not eat any smarties until the end of the lesson and so we all enjoyed the treat break.
We all agreed that this was one of our most enjoyable maths lessons ever!
