Fraction Flop

V Methodology
11:00

Episode
Today during my 3rd grade math group we had a test. Yesterday my 5th grade girl was gone and today she was back, but another student was gone today. I went ahead with the test anyways. They took a addition test over 9's, 2's, 3's etc. They had one mintute to complete one side. Everyone got done in time, but 1 student. He only had two questions left to answer. Their math test took them about 20 mintutes to complete. We put their math walls up around each student, so no one could cheat. (This had been a problem in the past.) When each student got done they got a 'wrap-up' to practice our new adding 9 facts. After the test we only had about 10 minutes to do the "activity". It was a fraction activity from the Saxon book. Each student got a worksheet and their own set of pattern blocks. Fractions were just introduced and some of the students have missed some days working with fractions. Today's lesson objective was to use blocks to show 1/2+1/2=1. Some of my student have a hard time coordinating fine motor and visual interpretation. Since we did not have very much time we barely review 1/2 or 1/4. The students were having a hard time understanding any of the concepts. It was time for them to go anyways, so I just let them clean up and we would review again tomororw and the next day.

Analysis:
The math group is getting harder becuause of varied levels of knowledge. Fractions seems to be a harder concept then even time or money. Tomorrow I will be doing some more activities with cutting a candy bar in 1/2 and 1/4s for our 4 students. I will try to incorporate a few more hands on fractions activites. We will just have to keep reviewing until it makes a little more sense.