The purpose of this activity is for students to practice identifying fractional intervals along a number line. This is Stage 2 of the center activity, Number Line Scoot. This activity encourages students to count by the number of intervals (the numerator). Students have to land exactly on the last tick mark, which represents 4, to encourage them to move along different number lines. While this activity does not focus on equivalence, it gives students exposure to this idea before they work more formally with it in the next section. In the Activity Synthesis, students relate counting on a number line marked in whole numbers to their number lines marked in fractional intervals.

It may be helpful to play a few rounds with the whole class to be sure students are clear on the rules of the game. Keep the number line gameboards for center use.

• Display a gameboard with a marker on .
• “If I rolled a 4, and chose to move , how would you count the move?” (I would count 1, 2, 3, 4.)
• “How did you know you have moved ?” (Because each space is , so I need to move 4 times.)
• Display a number line marked with only 0, 1, 2, 3, 4.
• “How is counting along this number line the same as or different from counting along your number lines?” (On the whole-number line, each space is 1 so we just count 1, 2, 3, 4. On our number lines, we still count the jumps, but now each space is smaller than 1 so we need the denominator to tell us the size of each space.)

The purpose of this activity is for students to locate a variety of fractions on the number line. Students locate on each number line fractions less than 1 and greater than 1, with the same denominator. The Activity Synthesis focuses on counting the number of unit fractions in a fraction to locate it on a number line and on how to determine whether a fraction is less than 1 or greater than 1. As they locate the fractions on the number lines, students strengthen their understanding of the meanings of the numerator and the denominator of a fraction (MP6).

• “What patterns did you notice in the fractions you located?”
• Consider asking:
  • “How do you know when a fraction is less than 1?”
  • “How do you know when a fraction is greater than 1?”
• “How did counting by unit fractions help you locate the other fractions on the number line?” (I counted by three times to find . I counted by as I moved along the number line, like , , , , , , to find .)

The purpose of this activity is for students to determine how a number line is partitioned and what fraction is marked on it, with only 0, 1, and 2 labeled. Students partition, locate, and mark, but don’t label, a fraction on a number line, and then trade with a partner to determine the fraction their partner has marked. Remind students to mark but not label their partitions and their fraction, so that their partner has only 0, 1, and 2 to use to determine what fraction is on their number line.

• Display a number line partitioned by a student.
• “Talk to your partner about what fraction is represented.”
• Share and record responses.
• Consider asking:
  • “How did you decide to partition your number line and what fraction to mark?”
  • “How did you decide your partner’s number line was partitioned and what fraction was marked?”