Lesson 1

Aims:
•  Circle-time conversations;

•  Putting on a wall chart expressions which exprime concrete situations related to fractions;

•  Completion of cards.

•  To bring back pupils' knowledge and abilities acquired in the past years related to the concept of fraction;

•  To think over fraction's use in everyday life.

Materials:
Wall chart; felt-tip pens; structured cards.

Introduction: To bring back pupils' knowledge and abilities acquired in the past years related to the concept of fraction, teacher has decided to start from a circle-time conversation to promote collective informations' exchange and discussions. Furthermore, it drives pupils in thinking over fractions' use in everyday life. Roundup: Each pupil is driven to think over real situations in which it is necessary to use fractions. For the whole first lesson, pupils have put their attention on the concept of fraction as “operator”, which is its common concept in everyday life.

Lesson 2

Aims:

To get from pupils' ideas common situations which can represent fractions' examples;

To consolidate pupils' fraction concept as “operator” on a quantity.

Introduction:

Teacher drives pupils to notice that their own class group can be considered as a “whole” from which it is possible to obtain different fractions.

He suggests pupils to group themselves according to specific features ( Ex: spectacled pupils; smocked pupils, etc.) in order to “fractionize” class group.

Then, according to specific features picked out by pupils, teacher arranges different groups.

A quarter of the pupils use glasses.	Two quarters of the pupils wear blue smocks.	Half of the pupils are girls.

Roundup:
Pupils, after the activity of grouping, can recognize one or more fractions.
Understanding math's concepts isn't easy for children. For this reason it is useful to make constant reference to concrete situations: it can rouse pupils' interest in order to discover and attach meaning to abstract ideas.

Lesson 3

Aims:
To foster a conscious link between fractions' concept and some aspects of everyday life;

To foster pupils' cooperation.

Materials:
Photographs

Introduction:
Teacher proposes to pupils a team game. He splits the class group up into three teams and gives to each team a photo related to a concrete situation.

The game consists to observe photos' subjects and to draw some possible fractions from them.

When time's up, each team gives to teacher its written proposals; after that, teacher gives pupils the possibility to observe the three photos in order to compare all the answers and to decide together the winning team.

Roundup:
Through the observation of the photos, pupils realize that “fraction” can be applied to various real contexts; furthermore, they realize that reality can be seen through maths' eyes.

Team game , supported by a right completion, can always be a valid way to foster pupils' learning and cooperation.