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Classroom activity Grade 5 Math

Deepwell Row Tanker Share: A Grade 5 Fraction Station Activity

A grade 5 station activity where teams model a fictional street's tanker delivery with fraction strips and write each household share as a fraction or mixed number.

Objectives

  1. Students will interpret a fraction as the division of the numerator by the denominator.
  2. Students will write each household share as a fraction or a mixed number of a gallon.
  3. Students will explain when a share will be less than one whole gallon.

Vocabulary

Key words: share, mixed number, tanker, well, division

Teacher overview

This is a four-station rotation for teams of three or four students, built around Deepwell Row, a fictional street whose shared well is out of service while a crew replaces the pump. A tanker truck parks at the corner each morning and leaves a set number of gallons for the households on the street to divide equally. Each station gives a different pair of numbers, and teams model the sharing with fraction strips before writing the answer as a fraction or a mixed number, which is exactly what it means to read a fraction as division. The rotation ends with a debrief that compares a station where every share was less than a gallon with one where every share was more.

Activity Directions

  1. Before class, print four station cards. Station 1 reads "3 gallons, 4 homes." Station 2 reads "5 gallons, 8 homes." Station 3 reads "7 gallons, 2 homes." Station 4 reads "9 gallons, 6 homes." Set each card at a separate table with a set of fraction strips or fraction circles.
  2. Divide the class into four teams of three or four students and give every student a copy of the recording handout. Assign each team a starting station.
  3. Explain the rule of the rotation: the number on the left is the gallons the tanker left, and the number on the right is the number of homes that must share it equally. A team's job is to build the share with fraction strips first, then write it on the handout as a fraction or a mixed number.
  4. Run Round 1 for 6 minutes. Teams build the share at their starting station, write it in the matching numbered space on the handout, and write the division sentence beside it.
  5. Call time and rotate every team one station clockwise. Run Round 2, Round 3, and Round 4 the same way, 6 minutes each, until every team has visited all four stations and has all four shares recorded.
  6. After the fourth rotation, give teams 5 minutes at their seats to complete handout questions 5 through 7, which no station covers, and to check that every share on the handout is written in lowest terms.
  7. Bring the class back together once all four rounds and the seat work are finished, which takes 29 minutes of station and seat time in all.
  8. Run the closing debrief for 6 minutes. Ask one team to explain why the Station 1 share came out smaller than a gallon while the Station 3 share came out larger, and record both division sentences side by side on chart paper so the class can compare the size of the divisor to the size of the dividend.
Deepwell Row Tanker Share: A Grade 5 Fraction Station Activity — Grade 5 Math
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Deepwell Row is having its well pump replaced. A tanker truck leaves water at the corner each morning for the homes on the street to share equally. Write each share as a fraction or a mixed number of a gallon, and show the division sentence.

  1. Station 1: The tanker leaves 3 gallons for 4 homes to share equally. How much water does each home get?
  2. Station 2: The tanker leaves 5 gallons for 8 homes to share equally. How much water does each home get?
  3. Station 3: The tanker leaves 7 gallons for 2 homes to share equally. How much water does each home get?
  4. Station 4: The tanker leaves 9 gallons for 6 homes to share equally. How much water does each home get?
  5. At Station 1, is each home's share more than 1 gallon or less than 1 gallon?
  6. Suppose the tanker had left 4 gallons instead of 5 for the 8 homes at Station 2. How much water would each home get then?
  7. Explain why sharing 3 gallons among 4 homes gives each home less than 1 gallon.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: 3/4 gallon. The division sentence is 3 divided by 4 = 3/4, so each of the 4 homes receives three fourths of a gallon.
  2. Answer: 5/8 gallon. The division sentence is 5 divided by 8 = 5/8, so each of the 8 homes receives five eighths of a gallon.
  3. Answer: 3 1/2 gallons. The division sentence is 7 divided by 2 = 7/2, and 7/2 written as a mixed number is 3 1/2 gallons.
  4. Answer: 1 1/2 gallons. The division sentence is 9 divided by 6 = 9/6, which simplifies to 3/2, and 3/2 written as a mixed number is 1 1/2 gallons.
  5. Answer: Less than 1 gallon. Four homes share only 3 gallons, so there is not a full gallon available for each home.
  6. Answer: 1/2 gallon. The division sentence is 4 divided by 8 = 4/8, which simplifies to 1/2 gallon for each home.
  7. Answer: There are more homes than gallons, so the 3 gallons must be cut into 4 equal pieces. Each piece is smaller than one of the whole gallons that was cut, which makes every share less than 1 gallon.

Differentiation

Support

Give these teams pre-cut fraction strips already divided into fourths, eighths, halves, and sixths so building a share is a matching task rather than a folding task. Pair each supported team with a station card that also shows a picture of the gallons and the homes, and let students place one strip in front of each drawn home before writing anything.

Extension

Ask teams to write a fifth station card of their own in which the share comes out to exactly 2 1/4 gallons, then trade cards with another team and check each other's work. Have them explain what has to be true about the two numbers on the card for the share to be more than 2 gallons.

ELL supports

Post a picture card at every station showing a tanker truck, a row of houses, and a gallon jug, with the words "gallons," "homes," and "share" labeled in English and, where possible, in students' home languages. Provide a sentence frame for the debrief: "Each home gets ___ of a gallon because ___ gallons are shared by ___ homes."

Extensions

Have students find out where their own school's water comes from and whether any homes in their area rely on private wells. Ask them to write one new station card based on a real number of households on a nearby street, then solve it and explain what the share would mean for a family of four.