Many teachers take their learning outdoors to consolidate and reinforce learning, or to assess understanding and knowledge. Teaching fractions outdoors can be a lot of fun and can really help pupils engage with what can be a difficult concept.
On the Creative Star website there is a useful article about ‘fraction walls’ as well as the video below showing two P6 classes on an outdoor ‘Fraction Challenge’
Autumn is a the perfect time to take advantage of all the different colours, shapes and sizes of leaves on the ground, and to use them to consolidate the fraction work that you have been doing in class. If you don’t have access to leaves in your school grounds you could consider exploring the local area to collect them or asking the children to bring some in to school. Once you have finished your fraction work you can use them to create some outdoor art!
Sticks, wool and whiteboards can be used with a class to have some outdoor fun with fractions. In pairs one pupils is given a fraction on their whiteboard, (initially by a member of staff so that the task can be differentiated) and they have to tie their wool on to their stick where they think that point is. Sticks are then laid down along with their whiteboard (face down) and they need to tell their partner which end of the stick is the ‘front’. Their partner then has to work out a way of measuring and guessing the fraction that the wool marks. As the pupils get more confident they can create their own fractions to write on their boards. The discussions and peer learning that takes place is really valuable!
