Lesson: Spiced-Up Baking

Before or after reading the article, spark a discussion based on the following questions:

• What are some tools you might use for measuring different ingredients?
• Why are measurements important for baking and cooking foods?

• Display or write the following fractions: ³/₈ and ⁷/₈. What can you tell me about these fractions? (Answers will vary. Possible answers: They have the same denominator; they have different numerators; ³/₈ is less than ⁷/₈ .)
• When two fractions have the same, or common, denominator, we call them like fractions.
  
• Draw models to represent these fractions. Review students’ models and select at least one volunteer who drew an area model to show the fractions.
• There are many different types of fraction models. Today, we will use area models to help us add like fractions.
• Play the instructional math video “Adding and Subtracting Fractions.”

• How did the area models help you visualize the addition problem? (Answers will vary. Possible answer: You can see how many parts of each whole you have by shading in the rectangles to represent the numerator of each fraction.)
• What do you notice about the size of the area models? (They are the same and represent the same-sized whole. Each model is split into 6 equal parts.)
• Why did only the numerator change in your total? (The denominator does not change because you still have the same parts of a whole. The numerator changes because it shows how many parts of the whole you have in total.)

Have students complete problems 1 through 4 on pages 6 and 7 of the article.

Skills Sheets: Level Down: Equivalent Fraction Bars (4.NF.A.1) | On Level: DynaDash: Adding Fractions With Like Denominators (4.NF.B.3.D) | Level Up: Adding and Subtracting Unlike Fractions on a Number Line (5.NF.A.1)

SEL (Social-emotional learning activity/prompt): Baking is an activity that requires people to follow specific directions. Have students think about a recent project or activity they participated in and then answer the following questions in a journal entry: Did you follow all the required steps? How did things turn out? Would you have done anything differently?

Dynamath@Home: Have students cut a piece of paper into a large square. Make one vertical fold, followed by a horizontal fold. Next, make a diagonal fold. Then fold the resulting triangle in half. Afterward, have students trace lines over the folded creases on their paper to show all of the triangles. Allow them to color in each of the triangles using 3 different colors. Then have students write fraction addition sentences based on their colored drawing.