Fractions topic closure was a great opportunity to connect them with real-life applications, for example cooking. At the first station, Pizza Piola, students had to use graphic models to make equivalent fractions or decomposing to dispatch pizza orders. At the second station students had to simplify fractions to match the ingredients of different recipes. The final station, Le Bakery, was about solving word problems comparing fractions with different denominators. When they finished a station, they received an object with a number, the three objects will give them a 3 digit combination to open the lock of a treasure chest.
Students were grouped by mixed abilities, they started a different stations and were able to move at their own pace. Purposefully, some groups were placed at the most difficult station to balance the speed and give everyone a chance to solve the clues.
Students were engaged, and although some groups took longer than expected solving the problems, they felt challenged and committed to work them through. The problems were very complex, probably too much, I didn't anticipate it was going to be that difficult. The activity took a long time, but a couple of teams finished. When we wrapped up, I congratulated all the teams for their effort and their work. Side note, they really liked the decorations. I don't usually "dress up" the class that much, but I can see how the novelty helped with the hype.
