Fractions, Fractions, Everywhere!

My students created a "Mr. Fraction Man," which consisted of them following step-by-step directions so we could do everything together. We started off by discussing how many parts were in the body of Mr. Fraction (8 parts). This would be the denominator for a fraction representing his body. Then my students chose a color and completed the first direction ("Color in 5/8 of his body.") They could color in the fraction however they wanted, but five of the eight sections had to be colored. The fractions varied for different body parts, but we continued with this process for the upper arms/legs, lower arms/legs, and fingers/toes. They were able to color his head however they wanted. After carefully cutting along the bold black lines, my students glued Mr. Fraction together and completed the second half of the direction sheet independently  ("What is the fraction for the unshaded part of his body?" etc..) This activity took a little longer than I had planned, but it was worth it! :)

To start this lesson, my students each got 6 same-colored unifix cubes. They connected them and we discussed the fractions for these cubes, such as "6/6 of the cubes are black. 0/6 cubes are red.") After taking one black cube off and replacing it with a red cube, we stated our new fraction: "5/6 cubes are black. 1/6 cubes are red." This continued until all of our original colors had been replaced, one-by-one. Later, we drew the unifix cubes onto a sheet of paper and wrote the fractions out, as shown in the picture.