Fraction activities, games, and read alouds for 1st and 2nd grade

Happy Tuesday! I know many of you are on Spring Break this week but I wanted to share several fraction activities and games that are great for 1st and 2nd grade. There are lots of fun ones that will help amp up the engagement during your fraction unit. Our state standard focuses on fractions of a whole – not of a set.

Alrighty, let’s start planning!

FRACTION ACTIVITIES AND GAMES

For years now I’ve used sticky notes to introduce fractions and partitioning shapes. Throughout the year I collect sticky notes in various shapes and sizes…anytime I’m out and about and see unique shapes, I throw ’em in the cart. Amazon is also a great place to find lots of sticky notes. I have this pack and they’re great.

I always start off introducing equal and unequal when partitioning the different shapes…of course relating this to sharing food is a great way to connect to the real world.

Sticky notes are also great for students to use to fold, draw, and cut the shapes into various fractions. This Book of Fractions is a great activity to hold all their sticky note shapes.

Here are a few other fraction activities for partitioning shapes to create different fractions.

Spin and Make can be used in partners, independently, stations, or as a whole group. If using it as a whole group, simply project the activity onto your white board and use a magnetic spinner on the board. These are my favorite; I’ve used them for years. To play, students spin the spinner, create the shape they land on and partition it into the corresponding amount of pieces.

For Fraction Wreaths, students color in the circles to create their own fractions. Afterwards, they write the fraction in word form and/or number form. The colors of the wreath can be changed out to match the season….Christmas could be red bow and green strips…fall could be brown bow and yellow strips, etc. The wreath is a paper plate with the middle cut out. Easy peasy!

Next up is a class favorite from a few years ago. We played this with place value (see here) and lemme’ just tell ya’…it was a HIT! Loads of fun, meaningful, easy prep, peer collaboration…talk about engagement!

To play: group your students in table groups (this could be played independently but peer collaboration is my favorite!) and give each group a fraction card and several sticky notes. I like to give each table group a different color – this makes it easy to quickly see which table group is having trouble with the skill, etc.

Hang the different fraction posters around the room (square model, circle model, rectangle model, word form, numerator, denominator)…

Students will work together as a table group to represent the fraction on their card in the various forms that are on the posters. After they have it the form of their fraction on their sticky note, they stick it to the correct poster. Y’all! They love it! It’s such a fun fraction game! Plus, it helps the different forms of fractions and ways that fractions are represented, STICK.

Spin It is another fraction game that is a blast. This is projected onto your whiteboard and used with a magnetic spinner. There are several different Spin It slides available here. To play: students (or you) spin the spinner, and students write the word form on their desks with an expo marker….or they could verbally tell you the fraction. You can play in table teams and make it a race to write the correct fraction first. My class always liked to play Spin It in table groups.

Flip and Share is a partner game where students take turns flipping over two cards and comparing them.

Tic-Tac-Find is another fun partner game to practice reading and identifying fractions.

Fraction Walk is a “Write the Room” activity and Read, Match, Scoot is played like the classic game of Scoot. I love using these type of activities for assessments.

I love this craftivity and hativitiy to wrap up the fraction unit!

And because you gotta get those grades in…Fraction Match Up sort and these Flip Books work well for informal assessments!!

There are several other flip book options here.

Whew. That was a lot, but I hope these activities will create engagement in your classroom and make learning about fraction fun for you and your students!

You can find all these activities here.

Before I go, I’ve rounded up some fraction read alouds for you. These are available on Amazon (affiliate links included), but you could definitely check your school or local library to see if they have them.