Can I have a piece of pie?
How Many Ways Can You Cut a Pie? by: Jane Belk Moncure is about a squirrel who bakes an acorn pie for the pie contest. Her two friends, Mouse and Frog, come by wanting to eat the delicious pie. Squirrel tells them "This pie is for the pie contest. If I win, I will share my pie with you." When the three friends go for a walk in the woods, Pig eats the whole acorn pie! When the friends come back Pig presents Squirrel with a ribbon and says "You win my pie contest, your pie was the very best." Mouse and Frog are mad because they wanted to eat some pie, Pig gathered more acorns so Squirrel could make another acorn pie. She cut it into four pieces, so everyone had a fair share.
How Many Ways Can You Cut a Pie? is a great book to use in your classroom to introduce fractions. Squirrel promises to divide her whole pie equally among all four of them. This book could be used to teach the CCGPS MCC3.NF.1 Understand a fraction 1/b as the quantity formed by 1 part when a whole is partitioned into b equal parts; understand a fraction a/b as the quantity formed by a parts of size 1/b because it presents many different ways to equally cut a pie. At the beginning of the story, Squirrel promises to "cut the pie in two pieces....one half for her, one half for Mouse if she wins the pie contest." When Frog comes over he wants Squirrel to "cut the pie in three pieces...one piece for you...one for Mouse...and one for me?" At the end of the book, Squirrel cuts the second pie into four equal pieces; one for her, one for Mouse, one for Frog, and one for Pig. The back of the book has more ways you can cut a pie and illustrates how to write a fraction. The illustrations throughout the book show how to equally divide a pie as well. The top number (numerator) tells the whole and the bottom number (denominator) tells you how many parts a whole is broken into.
1 pie in (numerator)
7 pieces (denominator)
This book seems as though it would be great to show students how we use fractions in real life as well as how important it is for the parts to be equal. I'm sure the students will be excited to do classroom activities that will correspond with this book. This would be a great addition to a teacher's classroom library. Good job! -Karli
ReplyDeleteWhat a great book to use to teach fractions! This book correlates well with the standard and seems as though it would be a fun read for your students. It provides a good introduction for fractions and how they relate to everyday life. -Lauryn
ReplyDeleteI agree. As a teacher, you could use the round paper plates and have students create their own kind of pie, while assigning each student a different fraction. The directions would be to use your pie to show this fraction (ie. 3/4- the student will shade 3/4 of their pie). The 1/4 that is not shaded will represent a part that had been eaten. I think this will be great for teaching fractions! -Katrice Gates
ReplyDeleteFractions can be a difficult and frusturating concept for students to learn. This book would be a great tool to use to help students understand. Kids love activities with food and there are so many that could be used to learn fractions. ~Amanda Daughtry
ReplyDeleteGreat blog! I like how y'all gave detail as to how you would incorporate this book as a lesson into your classroom! This book seems very basic but teaching a rather difficult lesson of fractions!
ReplyDeleteKelly
Through field experience so far, I have realized that students retain the information well when it is taught through a content book in story form. When I was in school, most of these concepts were taught through text books. Books like this one relates concepts to real world scenarios which is great for children to relate to. Also, it's a great opportunity to eat in class. What better than to divide a couple of pies up and eat their math problems? Yummy!! (Britani)
ReplyDeleteThis is a great book to introduce fractions to younger kids. Students always seem to dread fractions, but I think this is a great way to show them that they are not so scary. You did a great job finding the standard, too. Nice work!
ReplyDelete