Fractions - Make equal parts - Planning

The lesson plan for Year 3 students in the Spring term focuses on understanding fractions by making equal parts. Essential resources for the lesson include differentiated worksheets, teaching slides, a large pizza illustration, and small paper shapes. The key vocabulary terms that the lesson emphasises are 'equal', 'unequal', 'whole', and 'part(s)', with additional support available through vocabulary cards and definitions on the website. The lesson begins with a starter activity that recaps the concept of a whole as one object or quantity, and then moves on to explore the creation and identification of equal and unequal parts through both tangible objects and pictorial representations.

Children are encouraged to engage in partner work, promoting discussion and the use of full sentences to explain their understanding of equality and inequality in division. The class teaching input includes activities where students can experiment with dividing shapes into equal parts on a grid pattern and evaluate various representations to determine if they consist of equal or unequal parts. The plenary involves reasoning and problem-solving questions that prompt students to consider if equal parts always appear identical and if there are multiple ways to divide an object or quantity into equal parts. The session concludes with a 'Give me five' reflection activity, where students assess what they have learned and the skills they have used or found challenging, ensuring they remember the key aspects of making equal parts. The differentiated worksheets cater to varying levels of understanding, from working towards the expected level to achieving greater depth in the concept of equal parts.