I had a random idea the other day, so I figured I’d post it here to see if we can turn it into something usable. Please watch the short video before reading on.

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My initial thinking is that this could be used in some way to teach adding fractions or finding least common denominators.

Possible Workflow

Students watch the video and teacher leads a notice and wonder. Then, students are released to come up with their own way to create one half from 5 circles.

For a hands-on experience, this handout could be used. I’m imagining students coming up with all kinds of creative, unconventional ways to make one half. In the video, I intentionally went unconventional with the second one-fourth cut to hopefully encourage this.

If a digital experience is preferred, students can use this applet either on their own device, or teachers can have students come up to the board to demonstrate their thinking for the class.

What do you think?

Elementary content and pedagogy is certainly not my specialty. What are your thoughts for refining this idea?