Earlier this year, my students explored the commonalities between musical rhythms and fractions. The Common Core State Standards put a huge emphasis on fractions earlier in students elementary years now, and I believe this helped some students to understand more about the basic concepts of fractions. They were able to draw out the fractions, hear the difference between fractions and feel the fractions as they clapped them out. For example, the concept of denominator was solidified as students had to clap a quick 16 unit fractions in a whole as opposed to only 2 or 4 or 8.
Here’s a video that shows all the pieces of this project.
Can’t view the video on this page or email? Go to this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEL5jMuempg
And if you are interested in trying this with your students, here a template for comparing fractions of a whole with note values.
Let me know what you think and if you may try this (or have done something similar) with your students!
~EMP
Wow!! This is awesome! What a way to add relevancy and deeper understanding! I very much want to give this a try!! Thank you so much for sharing! 🙂
Brilliant! Can’t wait to do 🙂
This is wonderful. Especially now that “common core” is “the thing”. I am going to invite the principal to the room for this activity.
Thanks ladies! The kids had a lot of fun with this project. Let me know when you try it and how it all works out.