Today we culminated our fraction unit with a fun Play-Doh activity. Students had to apply their knowledge of parts of a whole, equivalent fractions, as well as adding fractions.
We mixed play-doh to learn about fractions
Students mixing their play-doh fractions
Working with partners, each group was given blue, red, yellow, and white play-doh. They were also given 1 teaspoon, ½ teaspoon, and ¼ teaspoon measuring spoons. Students had to measure out different amounts of play-doh, mix them together and record the color that they ended up with! The groups had to use their knowledge of finding equivalent fractions to make sure their denominators were the same. They had to make sure that each play-doh recipe added up to one whole teaspoon.
See if you can guess what color some of the following combinations made. Click on each picture to find out!
½ tsp yellow + ½ tsp red = ?
½ tsp red + ¼ tsp white + ¼ tsp blue = ?
½ tsp blue + ¼ tsp yellow + ¼ tsp white = ?
½ tsp yellow + ¼ tsp red + ¼ tsp white = ?
½ tsp red + ¼ tsp blue + ⅛ tsp white + ⅛ tsp yellow =?
½ tsp blue + ¼ tsp yellow + ¼ tsp yellow = ?
Afterwards, students were allowed to create their own recipes and see what colors they were able to make as long as their fractions added up to 1 whole teaspoon. Everyone did an amazing job and showed a great understanding of fractions!
*Did mixing play-doh help you understand adding fractions?*
*What was your favorite color you made?*
*What other fractions could you add together to make a whole?*
Hello Mr. Avery,
I am an art teacher and I am looking for art lessons to tie in fractions. I was searching for color mixing and fractions and found your great blog. 🙂 I see that you have a handout that guided the students. Would you be willing to share it? If so that would be wonderful!
Thank you!
~Amanda
Dear Mr. Avery,
Making the play-doh was so long ago. I miss the old days. It was fun mixing the play-doh and seeing what color it would come out as.
From,
Ariel
Dear Mr. Avery,
I like how you made play-doh. How do you make the play-doh? Did the kids in your class like making the play dough? How did you come up with the idea of making play-doh?
Sincerely,
Faith
Dear Faith,
We did not make the play-doh, we just mixed the colors together. Even though I would love to make it, it would be too messy! Have you ever made play-doh before?
From,
Ariel
Dear Mr. Avery and class,
We already learned about fractions. I have learned 1/8, 4/8, 1/2, and some others.
I am in 2 grade Mrs.T’s class. We have learned a lot this year. I love those colors! 🙂
Sincerely,
Tyler
Hi Tyler,
Thank you for writing in to our blog! It’s always great to see other students from our school writing in, especially when they’re a brother or sister from someone else in our class!
I hope you’re enjoying 2nd grade! Mrs. T is a great teacher and I’m sure you’re learning a lot from her!
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery
Dear Mr. Avery,
Playing with play-doh was so much fun! My favorite color that I made was aqua. I forget the recipe. Maybe I can experiment with the colors we used. You could do 1/4 +1/4 and 1/2 =1 whole. You could also do 1/2+1/2=1 whole. If you wanted to do a half of a whole you could do, 1/2 or 1/4 +1/4=a half of a whole. I could go on and on about fractions. Once you get the hang of it you can never stop!
The Play-Doh felt warm and you could squish the Play-Doh between your fingers. I forgot how much fun playing with Play-Doh was. The last time I played with Play-Doh was when I was in kindergarden or first grade.
I have a few questions:
When was the last time you have played with Play-Doh?
What was your favorite color that we made?
P.S My mom said that we are so lucky to have a great teacher like you.
♥ Sincerely ♥
🙂 Natalie S. 🙂
Dear Natalie,
It sounds like you certainly learned a lot about adding fractions! I’m glad you were able to give me some examples. Hopefully you’ll be able to remember this and use it in the future. You’ll find that if you ever cook things or bake a cake, this will definitely come in handy!
Thank you for asking me a few questions. It’s been a long time since I’ve played with play-doh. I used to play with it all the time! My favorite color was probably the sea green. That’s a tough choice though. I liked a few of them!
Thank you for your compliment. However, I think it’s me who is lucky to have great students like you!
Your teacher,
Mr. Avery
Dear Quad Buddies,
What a fun way to learn about fractions. I love playing with play-doh and making new colours.
We just started some fraction work this week and I think the 2/3’s would really enjoy play-doh fractions too. Did you make your own play-doh or is it the kind you buy in the store? We have a great play-doh recipe from Sophie’s mom that we might have to make to give this a try.
Thanks so much for sharing all your wonderful ideas. School sure can be fun!
Your buddy,
Mrs. W
Dear Mrs. Watson,
We really enjoyed it also! We learned a lot about adding fractions.
We ended up using play-doh that we bought in the store but think it would be even more fun if we had been able to create our own play-doh! After we got all of our play-doh, we had a sheet that told us the different recipes we had to make. One of the fractions was blank so we had to figure out which fraction was missing so we could make one whole. It was very challenging but we completed it!
We hope you try it!
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery’s class
Dear Mr. Avery,
Playing with play-doh was so fun! I loved mixing the colors together and seeing what they became. It was also fun that we were using fractions .
I hope we will do more fun things even though I know we will. The fun never stops!
Sincerely,
Ariel
Dear Ariel,
I’m glad you think the fun never stops! I think that making things fun helps you to get excited about learning! Hopefully you’ve been able to learn a lot this year.
I thought it was a great activity to finish working with fractions. It was a great way to review everything we had learned and hopefully being able to look back it this post will help you remember what we did!
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery
Dear Mr. Avery,
It was fun to play with play-doh in the classroom. It did help to learn about fractions. Playing with play- doh actually does help with fractions. My favorite color I made was a purple and green I kind of liked the purple better. You could do 2/4 and 2/4 to make a whole. You could do 3/4 and 1/4. You could do 3/8 and 5/8. I could keep going on and on about fractions but I would probably run out of space to write or type.
The play-doh was fun to play with and it felt good in my hands. My hands smelt bad after but I washed them. My favorite part of the play-doh was making our own fractions. I made a red, white and blue fraction and it came out really cool. My partners were Ariel and Natalie. We all took turns making different colors. We helped each other too. I can’t wait to do more fun stuff this year, like flying are kites. Happy commenting!
From,
Jenna
Dear Jenna,
I thought play-doh definitely helped with fractions! Using the measuring spoons made it easy to see the difference between 1/4, 1/2 and 1 whole.
I liked seeing the play-doh as it was being mixed together. It was interesting the way that we created swirls and then the more we mixed it, then it became a single color.
I thought Natalie, Ari, and yourself did a great job working together. It’s always great to see good teamwork taking place in the classroom. Keep it up!
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery
Dear Mr. Avery,
I loved playing with play-doh it was fun! 🙂 Will we ever do it again? All the play-doh was cool colored and it was so mushy. After that, my hands were different colors and the play-doh got all hard.
Sincerely,
Ben W.
Dear Ben,
I still have a lot of it left! We’ll definitely have to find some sort of use for it. I’m sure we’ll find another project to use it on!
I thought we definitely made some very cool colors. When we mixed two colors it was easy to figure out what color it was going to be. It was when we mixed more than two that I had to guess at what color we’d end up with!
Keep up the great work!
Your teacher,
Mr. Avery
Dear Mr. Avery,
I am so excited that I got to hold Play-Doh on the blog. That was really fun! The Play-Doh felt mushy in my hands. I love learning in a fun way. That was definitely awesome!
Sincerely,
Natalie S.
Dear Mr. Avery,
Playing with Play-Doh was such a blast! The mixed recipes looked so cool! My favorite color is the aqua. I forget the recipe though. I am going to ask my mom. My favorite part was when we got to bring the Play-Doh home and when we got to post it on the blog. What was your favorite part?
Sincerely,
Natalie S.
Dear Natalie,
I agree. Play-doh is definitely a lot of fun to play with. The great thing about it is you can make it into all different shapes or you can mix it up if you need to. There are so many great uses for it in class!
My favorite part was getting to see all of you adding fractions. That can be a very difficult thing to do sometimes, especially when you’re working with fractions with different denominators!
Best wishes,
Mr. Avery
Dear Mr. Avery and class,
Fun again? What is this “making learning fun” business? Just because you know fractions better than most adults doesn’t mean it’s right!
Obviously, I’m just kidding. When I was your age, it was paper and pencils and ugh…utter misery. Even though I’m an engineer, I still have to think really hard about fractions to get them right. I mostly use them in cooking nowadays. Great job, and although math is tough, Mr. Avery has proven it doesn’t have to be misery. 🙂 Keep up the good fun (I mean good work)!
Amy (Natalie’s mom)
Dear Amy,
Learning can definitely be lots of fun! I think it definitely helps us to remember the material when we have a reason to keep it in our memories!
We’ve definitely found fractions to be something that we use in our everyday life. They are definitely useful when it comes to cooking. If you need 1/8 teaspoon of something, you certainly don’t want to add 3/4 teaspoon! That can throw off the whole meal!
Thanks for your continued support!
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery