Year 2 have folded strips and shared pizzas into halves, quarters and thirds, and the teacher now wants them to recognise 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 2/3 and 3/4 in pictures. Working in pairs on a tablet, children open PhET's Fraction Matcher game and play the first level, where they drag a shaded circle or rectangle and a fraction onto the two scale pans and press Check. The rule for the lesson is that both partners must say out loud why the two cards match before either of them presses Check. A smiley face and points confirm a correct match, and a wrong match shows both amounts on a number line with a greater-than or less-than sign before the pair has a second try, so the teacher circulates asking pairs who needed a second go what the number line showed them. The lesson ends with each pair drawing one match they got wrong at first, with the shaded shape and the fraction side by side.
Tools: PhET Simulations Nine ideas for your own version in Generate
This page is one of a growing set of PICRAT examples by cell, subject and grade. Page maintained by Andy Perryer.