Compare Fraction Circle Pieces. The Comparing Fractions pages in the Student Guide develop the idea that dividing the unit whole into a greater number of fractional parts results in smaller parts. Students reason that four people sharing a pizza fairly will each receive more pizza than six people sharing the same size pizza fairly. That is, 1/4 of a pizza is more than 1/6 of the same size pizza because fourths are larger than sixths.
Use Question 1A–H to quickly review the fractions represented by the pink, orange, yellow, and aqua fraction circle pieces when the red circle is identified as the unit whole.
Share Pizza. Ask students to read the paragraph that describes the way that Jimmy's Pizza Shop sells a family-size pizza. Ask students to use their fraction circle pieces to represent each family's pizza.
Use the following prompts:
- Show or tell me how Jimmy cuts a family-size pizza. How does he decide how many pieces to cut? (Jimmy cuts the pizzas so that each person in the family gets one piece.)
- How does he make sure that everyone in the family gets a fair share? (He cuts all the pieces the same size.)
- Use your fraction circle pieces to show how each family's pizza will be cut.
Figure 3 shows the divisions for each family.
Ask students to work together in pairs to answer Questions 2–3. As they work ask them to tell you how they decided on their answers.
- How do you know who gets more pizza? (Possible response: If you cut the pizza into fewer pieces, then you will have more pizza in each piece. So, the Wus will get more pizza because they only have to share it with 4 people and the Franklins have to share it with 6 people.)
- What fraction of the pizza does each of the Franklins get? The Wus? (The Franklins each get 1/6 of the pizza and the Wus get 1/4 pizza.)
- What fraction of the pizza does each of the Larsons get? The Deweys? (The Larsons each get 1/3 of the pizza and the Deweys each get 1/2 a pizza.)
Find Patterns. After students have completed Questions 2–3 direct them to the Sharing Pizza page in the Student Activity Book. Ask students to use information from the Student Guide to complete the table in Question 1 and then complete Question 2 by describing any patterns they see in the table.
Use these prompts to guide a class discussion about the patterns they see. See Figure 4.
- Describe patterns in the table. (Possible response: The number of pieces that the pizza is divided into is the same as the denominator in the fraction.)
- Which fraction is larger, 1/6 or 1/4? How do you know? (Possible responses: 1/4 is larger. Each of the Wus got to eat more pizza than each of the Franklins because they didn't have to share it with as many people.)
- Show me with the circle pieces. Which is larger? (Students can show that the yellow piece is larger than an aqua piece.)
- Which family members got to eat the most pizza? What fraction of the pizza did they eat? (The Deweys each ate half the pizza. That is the most.)
- Which family members ate the smallest piece of pizza? What fraction did they eat? (The Franklins ate the smallest pieces. They each ate one-sixth of their pizza.)
- Which fraction is the largest fraction? The smallest? How do you know? (Possible response: 1/2 is the largest fraction and 1/6 is the smallest fraction. I know 1/2 is larger because the pink fraction piece is larger than the aqua fraction piece. Or, 1/2 is larger than 1/6 because the denominator tells how many pieces the pizza is divided into and if you divide a pizza in two pieces the pieces will be larger than if you divide the same size pizza into 6 pieces.)
Ask students to complete Questions 3–4 using their pieces.
Assign the Sharing Brownies Homework pages in the Student Activity Book.
