In this activity, students will compete to learn about fractions from quilts on display. Bring in several quilts and hang them around your classroom. Label each quilt with a number on a piece of paper pinned to the quilt. Create a handout with several fraction-related questions about the quilts. For example, you might write, "In which quilt are one-fourth of the squares blue?" Distribute the handout and explain that students should find their answers by examining the quilts around the room. Give a prize to the first student finished. Discuss the answers after the game is over.
Require students to represent different fractions by creating paper quilt squares. Give each student a 12-inch by 12-inch piece of poster board and a basket of 1 by 1 inch colored squares. Explain that students should use their poster board and colored squares to make a quilt square that will represent the fraction you announce. For example, if you call out "one-half," students could cover half of their poster board squares with one color and half with another color or leave half blank. They could split their poster board down the middle or arrange colored squares in a pattern.
Encourage collaboration and team learning by requiring students to work together to produce a paper class quilt. Give students a list of fractions that they must represent on the quilt, but tell them that the fractions can be represented by the quilt as a whole or a single block. Oversee the students as they delegate responsibilities, and ensure each student has a part to work on. Require students to design the quilt using poster board quilt squares and construction paper. Use yarn to help students string the quilt together. Have students present the quilt and explain how it illustrates fractions to another class in the school.
As they measure thread, cut fabric and follow patterns, students must be able to understand fractions to sew correctly. Teachers can combine home economics and math class by having students sew actual quilts to reinforce their understanding of fractions. Partner with the art and/or home economics teacher to lead students through a several month-long project of sewing an actual quilt that can be hung in the school or donated to a homeless shelter. Have students vote on the colors, design and dimensions. Require weekly reflective discussions or essays in which students consider how they have used fractions in making the quilt.