Divide the students into pairs and instruct them to interview each other about their favorite foods, colors or sports. If desired, give the children only three or four options for each question. Draw columns on the board with the appropriate answers for each question. After the children collect the information, ask them to fill in the results in the correct columns using tally marks. When all of the students are finished, calculate the answers using fractions. For example, if students must answer what their favorite food is, tally the results and turn them into fractions. If four chose spaghetti, eight chose pizza and twelve chose steak; add up the total number of answers; which is 24. The fractions in order are 4/24, 8/24 and 12/24. Simplify the answers to lowest fraction form.
Create bingo cards that contain fractions instead of numbers. Give each child a bingo card and small objects to mark their cards. Write all the possible fractions on small slips of paper and place them in a jar. One at a time, pull out a fraction slip and say what it is. Students must determine if they have that fraction on their card and must mark it if they do. When a student gets a row or column filled in, the student says “Bingo.” Continue the game for as long as desired.
Crumple up sheets of paper and divide students into pairs. Give each pair a crumpled “ball” and a bowl, garbage can or bucket. Tell the students to throw the ball into the bowl ten times each. Have them keep track of how many times they make it in the bowl and how many times they miss. Instruct them to turn the answers into fractions written in their simplest form. For example, if one student makes the ball in the bowl 4 out of 10 times; he should write the fraction 4/10. He should also simplify it to 2/5.
Divide the second-graders into two teams. Write a fraction on the board and when you say “go” the first player from both teams run to the board and must reduce the fraction. The rule is that each student can only reduce it one time. The play is over when the fraction is reduced to its simplest form. For example, write the fraction 250/1000. The first player might reduce it to 50/200. The next player might write 10/40 and the last student writes 1/4; which is the lowest form of this fraction.