"She said that half her brain is still on vacation!"  This from a fourth grader this week, reporting on the results of his search throughout the school for examples of fractions.  He was quoting a member of the staff responding to his search for fractions in her room.

Did you know that you can teach a fourth grader to add, subtract, multiply and divide fractions without that student actually knowing what a fraction is?  This would, of course, be a mistake, but it happens in some schools.  So our fourth grade teachers make it real by sending their students throughout the school to find examples of fractions.

"On Tuesday," announced the fourth grade teachers via email to the rest of the school, "the fourth graders will be roaming the building in search of interesting fractions. With your permission, a few fourth graders may enter your room and record a fraction. (4/19 of the students are wearing pink sneakers...)  They should be able to do this unobtrusively and will be under strict orders to travel only in pairs, not packs."

 Fourth graders gather fractions from an Upper School classroom

This works on so many levels.  It's active and gets the kids out into the larger world of their school, especially fourth graders who are approaching the big wide world of Middle School.  It has the excitement of a search and the thrill of discovery.  It brings younger students into contact with older learners who are also actively engaged in their own kinds of "big kid" explorations.

Most importantly, it transforms a fraction from something remote from their experience into something very real and understandable. "So what did you learn about fractions," I ask fourth graders at the end of the day.  "That they're everywhere!" a number of them say.

So while the adults in the building may be slowly building to full brain power through this week after spring break, our fourth graders are already very much there.