Students in Ms. Apo's class used Cuisenaire rods to determine a whole. In the examples above, the bottom rods on each number line, the blue and orange, were chosen as wholes. The students then determined which other colored rods represented fractional parts of the whole. When compared to the blue rod, the light green represents 1/3, as seen in the top example. The white rod, however, only represents 1/9 of the blue whole. Students represented their values as improper fractions for any value greater than one. The values could also be rewritten as mixed numerals. It is important for students to see models that show fractional values greater than one (like 7/3 or 23/9). By comparing Cuisenaire rods, students will also find equivalent fractions. In the examples above, students can see that 1/3 and 3/9 are equivalent values because they represent the same fractional part of the blue whole. The activity makes the abstract concept of the fraction number line more concrete by using Cuisenaire rods, and then representing the values with a pictorial model using Cuisenaire die-cuts.
