Identifying fractions in different forms

My daughter had already learned about fractions greater than 1 when she came home with a fractions homework sheet last week. The sheet asked her to identify the fractions given a number of shaded and unshaded objects. 

She wrote "1/1" for shaded, and "3/1 for unshaded, but knew it must be wrong.

We got to talking about "wholes" and that the whole changes based on the question. Sometimes the whole will be one object, like the pie on the left. Sometimes the whole is a group or set of objects. She asked me how she'd know what the whole was, and I was a bit stumped. Usually the whole is defined in a problem, but we had to assume on the homework sheet that the group of objects was the whole. 

I drew these two pictures on a piece of paper and asked her what was the same, what was different, and then we talked about the "whole" in each situation. Thankfully this got her past her confusion, and it gave me a glimpse into learning fractions for the first time. 

Teaching high school math, I saw my students struggle with fractions but had no real way of figuring out the root cause. So I was thankful for this conversation with my daughter. As basic as it sounds, it helped me understand how important the concept of whole is, especially when first learning fractions. 

Here's a fun, whole-class fraction activity for identifying fractions in different forms. Fractions are shown as parts of a whole, parts of a set, and fractions on a number line. 

Just print and hang the fractions posters in your classroom, then choose which activity you'd like students to do. 

Do you want your students to identify fractions shown in different forms? Or would you like students to write the fractions they see? Two different student answer sheets are included so that you can choose which type of activity you'd like your students to complete. 

Once students have their answer sheets, they travel around your classroom finding and identifying the fractions they see! This activity comes with 20 fractions in different forms posters to display in your classroom, along with 2 different student answer sheets. One answer sheet has fractions printed on it, the other asks students to write the fractions.

Fractions Classroom Match