K-5 Lesson Plans

Grade Level: First Grade

Content Area: Fractions and Decimals

Skills: ½, .5

Prerequisites: Understand concept of whole, half, and equal parts

Instructional Practices: estimation, reasoning, connections

Materials Needed: cubes for counting (unifix or other), or round shapes (pie) cut into ten equal shares

Technology: Accelerated Reader Program

Activity: Teacher demonstrates to students how ten unifix cubes makes one whole and each cube is an equal portion of that whole. (Pie may also be used.) Students are shown how Accelerated Reader points are represented as a part of the whole. ( A .5 book would be half of the whole or 5 unifix cubes. If the student received a .4 on an Accelerated Reader test this could be demonstrated using 4 unifix cubes and so on.) Students may be asked, after teacher demonstration and practice, to show total points earned on reading logs using unifix cubes to relate how two .5 books make a whole point.

Theme Ideas: Class read-aloud books may be related to teacher's theme or students may be given a selection of theme related books from which to choose.