Introducing Fraction Bars with a Guided Exploration

This post is part of a series all about introducing math manipulatives…and this time we are exploring fraction bars!

Fraction bars are one of the most-used manipulatives during our fraction units in grades 3-5 (along with color tiles, which I LOVE to use for everything fractions…and so many other concepts!)

These bars are ideal for developing conceptual understanding of fractions in third grade, as well as all those fraction operations in fourth and fifth grade.

Introducing Fraction Bars

When we begin our fraction units, I like to give my students an opportunity to explore the fraction bars.

But I like to ensure we explore in way in which my students are discovering key features (rather than building towers!).

To help with this, I lead my students through an exploration of the tools with a series of open-ended questions. This gives students a hands-on way to observe and understand the math tool.

I’m sharing the questions I use below, in case you’d like to try this guided exploration.

The questions are also included in a free resource at the end of this post!

What do you notice?

It’s a powerful question that prevents me from over-explaining ideas and concepts.

Instead, it helps my students draw their own conclusions. And it’s an excellent question to support productive struggle when students are working on challenging concepts.

When students first observe the fraction bars, you may hear responses such as:

Do these remind you of other manipulatives you’ve used before?

If your students have used place value disks in the past, they may notice some similarities between the disks and fraction bars.

Both manipulatives use color-coding to denote different values:

Although fraction bars have different sizes to represent different fractional amounts, whereas place value disks are all the same size.

A connection can also be made between fraction bars and base ten blocks:

It will be helpful to show how the base ten blocks have the unit to represent one and the fraction bars also have one, but represented as a different whole.

Can you find fraction bars that belong together?

While others may show different fractions that are equivalent to one half:

This kind of open-ended activity is always so informative, as all learners will be able to show different ways of thinking.

And you may even be surprised by the connections some students make!

How can we use these as a learning tool?

This is always an important question when we explore manipulatives! I just love hearing how my students think each tool can be used and I try to make note of their ideas on the board.

With fraction bars, I’m hoping my students realize (or I’m guiding them to realize!) we can count them, add them, compare them, and find fractions that represent the same amount.

This understanding lays a strong foundation for future learning with the fraction bars.

A Free Resource to Introduce Fraction Bars

Once we’ve explored with the four guiding questions, I like to give another open-ended task:

This is part of a free resource I’m sharing with you!

These slides feature the questions shared above, editable features for the activity slide, and presenter notes to help guide your students as they explore fraction bars:

Grab your copy of Introducing Math Manipulatives below (along with other math freebies!):

A Fraction Reference Wall

Once we’ve explored fraction bars, I know it is time to start building our fraction concept wall.

This interactive, scaffolded resource is a growing display you can create with your students as you learn new fractions concepts together:

Introducing More Math Manipulatives

I hope these ideas are of help as you begin to explore fraction bars with your class!

This article is part of a larger series of introducing math manipulatives. Be sure to check out the posts and grab the free slides for each:

• Introducing Color Tiles
• Introducing Place Value Disks
• Introducing Base-Ten Blocks (coming soon!)