Full House: An Invitation to Fractions is a great book by Dayle Ann Dodds. The book is about an inn keeper that wants to fill her inn for the night. As customers check-in the book uses fractions to describe how much of the inn is full. As each customer is introduced the book adds the fractions together. It has a fun rhyme that kids can follow along with.
I would not have thought of this book as one I would use in a fifth-grade classroom until I saw how another teacher utilized it. The class was having trouble grasping how to add fractions together. Before the lesson the teacher read this book aloud to the students and made it interactive. This was easy to do since it followed a repeating pattern through out. The teacher used it as a scaffolding tool to make the concept of adding fractions less complicated. To my surprise the class of fifth-graders were engaged and saying there parts in unison when they came.
This book is easy enough for younger students and could be used as a way to introduce fractions as well. I liked that the teacher used it as a way to get the students to engage in the activity of learning to add fractions. I too can see using the text in the same way. This book would also be easy enough that the class could revisit the story independently for extra support.
I love that you had the experience to see how a teacher effectively used a book that you would not have necessarily thought of using with 5th graders. It sounds like students were engaged while getting started thinking about the content.
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