The purpose of this activity is for students to practice partitioning and labeling equal-size parts, with unit fractions. This provides students a physical tool they can use throughout the unit to make sense of fractions.

Have students keep their fractions strips for reference in future lessons. They also will need the fraction strips for activities in Section C. Consider having them glue the fraction strips in their student book.

When students make halves, fourths, and eighths, they observe regularity in repeated reasoning as each piece is subdivided into two equal pieces. They observe the same relationship between thirds and sixths (MP8).

• Invite students to display their partitioned strips. Keep a full set of fraction strips displayed.
• Ask previously identified students to share how they fold their strips to get 4, 6, and 8 equal parts.
• If not apparent from students' explanations, highlight that fourths, sixths, and eighths can be found by partitioning each half, third, and fourth, respectively, into two equal parts.

Previously, students partitioned rectangular pieces of paper into 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 equal parts by folding. The purpose of this activity is for students to partition rectangles by drawing, and to continue to practice naming the parts with the unit fractions , , , , and . It’s important that students try to make the parts as close to equal in size as they can, but students’ drawings do not need to be exact. After they practice partitioning, students partition and shade—but do not label—a fraction on a rectangle, and then they trade with a partner to determine the fraction their partner has shaded. The Activity Synthesis focuses on how to name a single equal part, such as “one-sixth,” rather than talking about all the equal parts in a shape, such as “sixths.” This will be helpful as students use non-unit fractions to name multiple equal parts in the next lesson.

• Have 2 or 3 students display their shaded rectangles.
• For each rectangle, ask, “How did you know what fraction of the rectangle your partner shaded?” (I counted the equal parts in the rectangle. There were 4 equal parts, so I knew my partner shaded one-fourth.)