Lesson 11
A Bigger Piece
Lesson Purpose
The purpose of this lesson is for students to compare the size of halves and fourths of the same shape and understand that partitioning a shape into more equal pieces creates smaller pieces.
Lesson Narrative
In previous lessons, students partitioned shapes into halves and fourths and identified “a half,” “a fourth,” and “a quarter,” of a shape. In this lesson, students build on this work by comparing the size of halves and fourths of same-size shapes. Students explain that for the same shape, a fourth is smaller than a half. In later grades, students will generalize that for any whole, splitting it into more pieces creates smaller size pieces. At this point, they only need to understand the relative size of halves and fourths of the same shape.
- Action and Expression
- MLR7
Activity 1: Which is Bigger?
Learning Goals
Teacher Facing
- Compare the size of halves and fourths of the same shape.
- Understand that for halves and fourths, partitioning a shape into more equal pieces creates smaller pieces.
Student Facing
- Let’s compare the size of halves and fourths.
Required Materials
Materials to Gather
Required Preparation
Activity 3:
- Place 4–6 different geoblocks into a bag that is not see-through for each group of 2 students.
Lesson Timeline
| Warm-up | 10 min |
| Activity 1 | 15 min |
| Activity 2 | 10 min |
| Activity 3 | 15 min |
| Lesson Synthesis | 10 min |
| Cool-down | 0 min |
Teacher Reflection Questions
When do your students feel successful in math? How do you know?