Fraction Penguin

In this craft activity, students will:

1. recognize, name, and compare the fractions 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8, as related to a whole circle.
2. construct a penguin out of portions of paper circles.

1. Trace the outline of a compact disc onto white construction paper, and cut out several of the resulting circles. Fold the circles in half consecutively until you have a ‘pie’ with 8 slices. Cut along the folds, and then snip each piece in half again, to create two 1/16 sized slices for each student (eye masks for penguins).
    
2. If you are concerned about the dexterity level of your students, use the compact disc to prepare 4 black circles and 1 white circle for each student.
    
3. Make a complete Fraction Penguin as a sample, and write the Recipe for a Fraction Penguin on the board.

1. Distribute or have students trace and cut out 4 black circles per student.
    
2. Show students how to fold 3 of the black circles into halves, fourths, and eighths, respectively. Have students cut out the pie slices, and lay the pieces down on their desks to re-form three whole circles. Review the fraction sizes using the concrete slices. Assess student understanding with simple exercises, counting the number of parts that add up to a whole for the respective circles. Have students choose a slice and show it to a partner, who has to use its size to guess what fraction it represents.
    
3. Distribute one white circle per student, saying that this represents the penguin’s belly. Explain countershading. Show students the back of your penguin and note that the recipe calls for 4 black feathers, size 1/4. Have students glue on the protective feathers to reform one whole black circle to cover up the white paper.
    
4. Have students turn the circle over so the white belly is facing up.
    
5. Have students read the recipe, refer to your example penguin, and then construct their own by attaching the appropriately-sized head, wings, feet, and beak.
    
6. Pass out the 1/16 sized eye patches. Can they guess how you made them? After gluing on the eye mask and drawing eyes on their own penguin, tell students to draw a broad black band across the penguin’s chest. This mark characterizes the bird as a black-footed penguin!

• Give students freedom to design the form of a penguin using any classic shapes, such as squares, rectangles, triangles, circles, ovals, diamonds, or wavy lines. Have the class make a colony of a certain species of penguin, or allow students to choose a favorite.
   
• Bake a black and white cake to share, fraction-style!

Penguins are known for their tuxedo suit, but many do not realize that this coloration is an adaptation to evade predation by orcas and seals while swimming in the ocean. A black back blends in with the dark depths of the sea, so a predator has trouble spotting the bird from above. Likewise, a white belly makes the penguin less visible from below, when its form is cast against the surface made bright by the sun. This camouflage resulting when an animal’s back is darker than its underside is known as countershading. Birds, squirrels, dolphins, and fish all exhibit countershading, for they live and move in mediums that allow others to view them from above and below.

There are 17 species of penguin in the world, with all living on or south of the equator. Species can be distinguished by size, color variations, decorative feathers, and distinctive markings on their face and chest. The Fraction Penguin craft is based on the black-footed penguins featured in African Hall. Found in the wild off the coastal islands of southern Africa, black-footed penguins can be identified by their black beak, black feet, black horseshoe-shape band spreading across the chest, and white markings on the face.