If you teach fractions, chances are you teach them during the long, dreary, and cold winter months. While I’m not a huge fan of winter, I am a fan of using winter-themed fraction activities for my small group center. They bring me joy and provide instant engagement and excitement to the classroom!
Improper Fraction Snow Globe Sort
One of my favorite winter-themed fraction resources is an Improper Fraction Snow Globe Sort. It checks all the boxes: hands-on, versatile, engaging, rigorous, and purposeful!
To prepare the activity for students, spread out the improper fraction snowflakes and arrange the mixed number snow globes in order from least to greatest.
I love seeing the look on my student’s faces when they realize they’ll be working with snowflakes and snow globes. They are always curious and anxious to discover what it’s all about!
Their goal is to correctly sort the improper fraction snowflakes into the appropriate snow globes. To do this, they first convert the improper fractions to mixed numbers by either using division, mental math, or decomposing the fraction into wholes and parts. It always makes me proud to see students using more than one method!
Next, students compare the mixed numbers to the ranges labeled on the snow globes. Note: The updated snow globes now have number lines to make this step more clear.
Sorting the snowflakes is where the wheels start turning. Since many snowflake values are close to more than one snow globe range, students must think carefully about where to place the snowflake.
Hearing my students make justifications as to where they place their snowflakes, and the conversations that result gives me valuable feedback. For instance, I’ve had many students master converting improper fractions to mixed numbers but struggle to place them on a number line. Without the number line placement, I would have never discovered this gap in their learning!
Once all 48 snowflakes have been placed in the appropriate snow globes, the sort is complete. Even though students work independently with their snowflakes, it feels like a team effort. Therefore, we celebrate together when finished!
Assessing and Advancing Questions
There’s no doubt this resource can serve as a great assessment tool. Throughout the activity, I use questioning strategies to assess and advance their understanding of the skill. For instance, if I see a student place a snowflake in the wrong snow globe, I’ll simply ask them to share their reasoning. I can also give students small prompts without revealing the answer to help steer them in the right direction.
In addition, I make sure my struggling students are working with simpler fractions and my advanced students are solving more complex ones. This helps to avoid any potential frustration and allows everyone in the group to feel successful.
For my early finishers, I often take it a step further by challenging them to convert improper fractions to decimals.
That leads me to my next point…
Extension Activities
Whenever you plan a matching activity for your small group center, I highly recommend including one or two extension activities. This helps keep all students engaged and appropriately challenged.
For example, once all the snowflakes have been sorted, have each student choose eight snowflakes, create four fraction comparison problems, and insert the correct symbols. This can serve as their exit ticket from your small group table.
Another extension is to have students place the improper fractions on a number line labeled 0-4. You can easily create this number line by using a dry-erase marker on your table.
Purchase on TPT
Do yourself (and your students) a favor and try this hands-on, festive, and engaging activity in your classroom. You and your students will have “SNOW” much fun!
Until next time,
Happy Teaching!
-Annamarie
P.S. If you love using festive resources with students, read this BLOG POST all about Christmas-themed resources!