Sydney Horning

Math lesson
Grade: 3rd
Topic: Lesson 3 Locate Fractions on the Number Line
Standards: CC.3.NF.2a, CC.3.NF.2b
Objectives: The students will learn how to locate fractions on the number line.
Language/Key Vocabulary: Number line: a line on which numbers are marked at intervals, used
to illustrate simple numerical operations.
Assessment:
(Informal) Formative: Have students come up the board and do problems.
(Formal) Summative: Quiz
Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks
I. Anticipatory Set:
Motivation: What do you do when you need to count or measure something?
Activate Prior Knowledge: Ask students if they have ever used a ruler to measure before?
Explain that rulers are like number lines.
II. Instruction and Modeling: Use Unit Fractions to Locate Fractions
Fractions Less than 1 on the Number Line
Ask a student to pass out the white boards to the other students. Draw a number line on the
whiteboard. Label 0 and 1 and ask students to draw a number line like it on their whiteboards.
0

Show where point 2/3 goes in the number line. It goes between 0 and 1 but it is closer to 1; you
need to make three equal parts and put the point at the end of the second part. To make it equal,
you can use your ruler or if you were doing it on paper, you could folder the paper in 3 parts.
0
2/3
1
Show where point 1/3 goes in the number line. It goes between 0 and 1 but it is closer to 0; you
need to make third equal parts and put the point at the end of the first part.

1/3

How can you locate the point for on the number line? Ask a volunteer to do it on the board.
0

Erase the number line and write a new one. This problem is a little more difficult. Show how to
locate 1/3, , and 1/5 on the number line. One way to do it is to make three number lines above
this one, locate each fraction on its own number line, then copy the points on the first number
line.
0

1/3

1/4

1/5

1/5 1/4

1
1
1/3

Activity 2: Fractions Greater than 1 on the Number Line

Draw a number line on the board. Label 0, 1 ,2, 3 above the number line and ask the students to
draw it on their whiteboards. The numbers are above the number lines so we can write fractions
below the number line.
0
1
2
3
In fractions less than 1, the numerator is less than the denominator. When the number is equal
to the denominator it means the fraction is equal to 1.
Locate 1/3 on the number line.
0

1/3

If you move another 1/3, you get to the point 2/3. And if you move another 1/3 you reach 3/3
which equals 1.
0
1
2
3
1/3

2/3

3/3

What happens when you move another 1/3 on the number line? You have four unit fractions of
1/3, so you place the point at the end of the 1/3 and label it 4/3.
0
1
2
3
1/3

2/3

3/3

4/3

Continue location and labeling the unit fractions through 3. Point out that the fractions 6/3 and
9/3 are other names for 2 and 3.
1/3, so you place the point at the end of the 1/3 and label it 4/3.

1/3
2/3
3/3
4/3 5/3 6/3 7/3
8/3
9/3
What do you notice about 3/3, 6/3, and 9/3? The can multiply the whole numbers 1, 2, 3 by 3 to
get the numerators; the numerators are multiples of the denominators. The number line goes on
and on, so the fractions also go on and on. You have learned how to name a whole number as a
fraction. There are many fractions that can make a whole number, and you will learn about them
as you continue to study fractions.
0
1
2
3
1/1
2/1
3/1
What do you notice about these fractions? Possible answer: The numerators are the same as the
whole numbers, and the denominators are all 1. The numerators tell how many ones are in the
fraction.
III. Guided Practice: Activity 3: Locate Fractions Greater than 1. Ask students to turn to Student
Book page 356. Solve and discuss for exercises 8-12. Discuss how these number lines are
different from page 355. These number lines go beyond 1, and all the whole numbers are
marked. Ask students to work independently on exercise 13. Volunteers can share their answer.
Activity 3: Other Ways to Locate Fractions: Find the Whole
Draw this number line on the board and have students copy it.
0
1/3
How is this number line different than the other ones we have been working with? There is a 0
but no 1; it just shows 1/3.
How would you place the point for l? The first unit fraction is there, so you can measure it and
use it to mark 2/3 and then 3/3 or 1.
0
1
1/3

2/3

3/3

Activity 4: Find a Fraction with a Different Denominator

Draw this number line and have students copy it on their white boards.
0
1/4
Demonstrate how to find 1 on the number line. Have students work on their whiteboards.
Where do you place ? Possible answer: you can do the same thing as before to find 1 and draw
a new number line with that point for 1. Then you can divide the new number line into 4 equal
parts to locate 2/4 and . It is like working backward on a 2 step problem.
Now we will place the points for 1/3 and on the same number line.

1
1/3

2/3

3/3

1
1/4

2/4

4/4

Then draw a line from the bottom number line to the top number line and locate on it.
0

1
1/3

2/3 3/4

3/3

|
|
|
0

1
1/4

2/4

4/4

IV. Closure: Today the students learned how to locate fractions on the number line. I will give
out exit slips.
V. Independent Practice: Homework pp. 261-262
VI. Differentiation Strategies: none.
VII. Instructional Resources and Materials:
1. Student Activity Book pp. 355-358
2. Activity Workbook pp. 215-218
3. Number lines
4. Whiteboard
5. Dry erase marker

Quiz
1. Show where point 2/3 goes in the number line.

2. Show where 3/3 goes on a number line.

3. Show where 1/3 and goes on the same number line.