Now...on to those Hershey bars! Who doesn't love tasty chocolate candy? {Remember my chocolate drawer I told you about?} Using chocolate for math makes it even better!
Thanks to this little party, I got to meet a great new blogger! I swapped products with Julie from Math Is Elementary! Julie is a third grade teacher from Florida who teaches math and science. You have to go check out her blog! She has terrific math ideas {a blogger after my own heart =)} not to mention great ideas for other subjects too! Click on her button at the bottom of this post to visit her blog! And don't forget to visit her TPT store to grab some freebies or one of her other great products (like the one I'm reviewing today)!
I got to review Julie's TPT product "We Love Candy Bar Fractions"! Here's her description of the product.
"Candy Bar Fractions (16 pages) is a math literature unit designed to coordinate with Jerry Pallotta's Hersheys(TM) Fractions Book. It contains models of whole candy bars and all the fractional parts as well as equivalent fractions recording sheets, fraction cards and fraction comparison work mats. Aligned with Common Core standards for 3rd and 4th grade, it can be used for any grade working with fractional parts / equal shares."
As soon as I opened the file and looked over it, I loved it! I can see this being a big hit in my classroom! As much as full size Hershey bars cost, I can't buy one for every child, so the printable Hershey bars in this product will be great (and less messy) to use for manipulatives along with the fraction cards for 1/2 through the twelfths! And after the activity maybe we can share a few bars or each get a mini bar as a treat for a job well done! You get whole bars, halves, fourths, thirds, sixths, and twelfths.
Laminating and cutting could take a while, but this would be a perfect and easy task for a parent volunteer you may have! I find it really difficult to ask for help sometimes, but I've found that a lot of parents really do want to help and just need to know what to do.
When you have all of those Hershey Bars and number cards ready to go, grab your work mats. You get three work mats - one for comparing equal fractions, one for less than, and one for greater than. They'll be easy for the kids to use alone or with a partner! In my class we'll be comparing first with the bars and then adding the number cards.
As they work, each student will record the equivalent fractions on a recording sheet. You have three variations of the equivalent fractions recording sheet.
You can choose the recording sheet that lets the kids find and write any two equivalent fractions.
Or you can choose the recording sheet that has them find all of the equivalent fractions they can for any fraction they want to begin with.
My favorite is just like the second option I showed you, except for one thing. The first fraction is given so students have to find fractions equivalent to it. If you plan to check their recording sheets for accuracy, I think this one would be the easiest and quickest to check!
All in all, this is a great product! I can't wait to see more of what Julie has to offer as she continues to add products to her store! Be sure to check out her blog (click the button) and her TPT store (click here)!
And don't forget to check out all of the other product reviews linked up on Jessica's blog for her "Magical Product Swap"!
