Lesson Plans Provided by Steam'n | Print

Orange you Excited to Learn about Fractions?

Fractions can be a "whole" lot of fun, and it's super easy (and tasty) to learn about using an orange as your visual! 

The students will understand the concept of fractions by eating slices of an orange.

1 Orange per student (You may want to peel the skin off of the oranges for students prior to the lesson, or have an extra hand if students are peeling the orange themselves.)

1) Begin by having each child hold their orange in their hand. Ask the students what they are holding. The key concept is to have students realize they are holding the ‘whole’ orange.

2) Demonstrate separating the orange into two equal halves. Have students do the same. Explain to students that in each hand they have One Half of an Orange. Write on the board: ½ . By putting the two ½ together you will have one whole. Write on board ½ + ½ =1

3) Next have students separate the halves again into two more equal parts. In total they should have 4 equal parts. Have students hold up one ¼ of the orange.

4) Repeat the last step again, but have the students break each quarter of the orange in half again. Have students count how many slices of the orange they have. (8). Have students show you 3 out of the 8 slices, or 3/8. Continue this lesson using many different examples of fractions present in the orange.

Have students eat 1/8 of their orange. (One slice). Then allow students to enjoy the rest of their orange snack. As they snack, fill students in on the nutritious values oranges have to offer. Yum!