Lesson plan

3. Apply understanding of dividing a unit fraction by a whole number (A)

  • From K-5 Math Companion Curriculum
  • Created by
  • Standards
  • Tags:
teaches Common Core State Standards 5.NF.B.7.b http://corestandards.org/Math/Content/5/NF/B/7/b
teaches Common Core State Standards MP1 http://corestandards.org/Math/Practice/MP1
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Lesson objective: Apply understanding of dividing unit fractions by whole numbers to solve problems.

This lesson provides an opportunity for students to apply their knowledge and understanding of dividing unit fractions by whole numbers to a real-life situation. Students are asked to figure out how much sand each student may use in an art project based on the amount of sand left from another project and the number of students who would like to share the sand.

Key Concept students will use: 

  • the meaning of division and the meaning of fractions to determine the name of the result of a division.

Skills students will use:

  • how to represent unit fractions on a veritcal number line, and then subdivide the space.
  • how to name unit fractions based on how many of a piece of a given size makes a whole.
  • adding fractions with unlike denominators (Note: the size of the denominators in this problem is relatively large).

Students engage in Mathematical Practice 1 (make sense of problems and persevere in solving them) as they work from given information to determine how much sand is available for each student in the problem and the combination of colors each student has chosen.