Big Ideas: A fraction describes the division of wholes into equal shares. Equal shares have the same area or amount, but do not have to be the same shape.
This lesson builds on students' work with partitioning circles and rectangles into two, three, and four equal shares. This task uses a scenario in which students share a birthday cake. Students will be presented with kids who each want to share their cake differently and asked to justify which kids are sharing equally. Students will be building their foundational knowledge of fractions by representing, labeling, and justifying equal shares. The mathematical concepts in this lesson build toward students' future work with naming fractions, comparing fractions, and equivalent fractions.
Vocabulary: fraction, equal shares, halves, thirds, fourths, sixths, eighths