Fractions / Accordion Book

Accordion Fractions Book

Here’s the rest of what I started in my last post about this book with the narrow accordion spine.  What I like about combining this structure with fractions is that it makes a concrete (ok, paper) connection  between the relationship of different “families” of fractions to each other.  For instance, just by looking at the pages when the book is expanded, as it is in the photo above, it’s clear that two-fifths is bigger than one-fourth, and 2/2 is the same as 3/3.

After making the accordion spine in the last post, there’s actually one more step, because I needed not four, but  five accordion folds.

To make the fifth accordion, start by folding just one edge over to meet the closest crease.

To make the fifth accordion pleat the students folded one of the edges to the closest crease, pressed down the fold then turned the paper over and brought the crease up to the master fold.  Done.

Accordion spine with covers

Now the covers go on….

pages of fractions, 8″ x 5 1/2″

…and the pages go in.  After a conversation with  my wise special ed friend teacher, Melanie, I decided to label the left side of the pages with part of the fraction that each slice of paper singularly represents.

Gluing pages into Fractions Book

Students cut the papers  to their appropriate sizes  (on the lines that were printed onto the papers).  This step, to my surprise, didn’t take long and went quite smoothly.  There was the occasional leaking out of glue that made some pages stick a bit to each other, but that was easily fixed.

The students labeled the right, exposed edge of the fractions book, with the fractions written sequentially.

Now it’s time to decorate the cover, using 2 inch squares to cut into fraction pieces.

And decorated they did.

The only thing left to do, if they choose, is to write on the blank parts of the pages, perhaps adding in math facts.

A big thank you to the teachers who trusted me when I said, hey, we can do a fractions book…I’m sure they had no idea what I was talking about. And it worked out so well! Everyone was happy.