Grade Levels: 3-5

In this lesson plan, adaptable for grades 3-5, students play Satisfraction, a game that challenges students to explore fractions by comparing fractional amounts.

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments

Students will:

  1. Use multiple visual representations (e.g. squares, number line and numerical fraction) to illustrate the relationships between parts of a whole
  2. Recognize and generate simple equivalent fractions, and use a visual model to explain why these fractions are equivalent

Materials:

  • Computers or other devices with Internet access
  • Interactive whiteboard or other display

Preparation:

This lesson features a fraction game called Satisfraction, developed by Filament Games. The game invites players to apply their knowledge of fractions by slicing and slashing blocks into fractional parts.

Preview and play Satisfraction to plan how you will adapt it to your students’ needs, and consider at which level you’d like students to begin. The first four levels include tutorial overlays that remind players of the basic mathematical concepts they will need to understand in order to progress in the game.

If students will be working in small groups, review tips on Setting Cooperative Gaming Expectations.

Depending on your classroom routines and available technology, you may want to consider these grouping options:

  • 1:1 with students and devices
  • Two to three students sharing one device and swapping ideas and the device back and forth
  • Station model where small groups rotate through using the devices

For ideas on how to use SnapThought with this game, read Satisfraction: SnapThought Prompts for more information and specific SnapThought prompts to provide students during game play.

Build background knowledge or reinforce topics with these BrainPOP movies: Reducing Fractions, Fractions, Proportions, Ratios, Division, and Multiplication.

Lesson Procedure:

  1. Depending on your students’ familiarity with fractions, you may want to play one of the related BrainPOP movies, such as Reducing Fractions or Fractions on the whiteboard or other display.
  2. Project Satisfraction on the whiteboard for the class to see. Explain to students that they will be using their knowledge of fractions to play this game.
  3. Have students explore the first few levels of the game independently, in pairs, or small groups. Or they can begin at a level that you determine, which may be different for different students.
  4. Circulate as students play, answering questions as needed. If students have individual logins through My BrainPOP, encourage them to use the SnapThought tool to take snapshots during game play, and reflect on their strategies. Review Satisfraction: SnapThought Prompts for suggested prompts.
  5. After about ten minutes, pause the gameplay and have students come together for a whole-class discussion about the strategies that they used. They may share their SnapThought responses at this time. You may also ask additional questions such as the following:
    • How did you know how many pieces to cut the blocks into?
    • How did your slicing affect the number line?
    • What happened as you“leveled-up”? What made higher levels more difficult?  
  6. Allow for another 10-15 minutes of gameplay, encouraging students to reflect on their previous strategies and try new ones as they level up. Emphasize that they can go back to earlier levels and try to look at them in different ways in order to help them with higher levels.

Extension Activities:

Challenge students to create basic word problems that could be represented using the blocks in one or more levels. For younger students, you might come up with a few word problems beforehand that can be applied to particular levels in order to guide their understanding and help them transfer their gameplay into real-world contexts.