1. Teacher Guide
This lesson is designed to teach kids to ask a critical thinking question that you can’t just put into a search box to solve. To do that, we encourage them with smaller questions that search can help them answer. Make sure that you read the notes for each slide: they not only give you teaching tips but also provide answers and hints so you can help the kids if they are having trouble.
Remember, you can always send feedback to the Bing in the Classroom team at You can learn more about the program at bing.com/classroom and follow the daily lessons on our Partners In Learning site.
Want to extend today’s lesson? Consider using Skype in the Classroom to arrange for your class to chat with another class in today’s location. And if you are using Windows 8, you can also use the Bing apps to learn more about this location and topic; the Travel and News apps in particular make great teaching tools.
Nell Bang-Jensen is a teacher and theater artist living in Philadelphia, PA. Her passion for arts education has led her to a variety of roles including developing curriculum for Philadelphia Young Playwrights and teaching at numerous theaters and schools around the city. She works with playwrights from ages four to ninety on developing new work and is especially interested in alternative literacies and theater for social change. A graduate of Swarthmore College, she currently works in the Artistic Department of the Wilma Theater and, in addition to teaching, is a freelance actor and dramaturg. In 2011, Nell was named a Thomas J. Watson Fellow and spent her fellowship year traveling to seven countries studying how people get their names.
This lesson is designed to teach the Common Core State Standard: Number & Operations - Fractions
CCSS.Math.Content.3.NF.A.3 Explain equivalence of fractions in special cases, and compare fractions by reasoning about their size.
CCSS.Math.Content.3.NF.A.3.b Recognize and generate simple equivalent fractions, e.g., 1/2 = 2/4, 4/6 = 2/3. Explain why the fractions are equivalent, e.g., by using a visual fraction model.
CCSS.Math.Content.4.NF.A.1 Explain why a fraction a/b is equivalent to a fraction (n × a)/(n × b) by using visual fraction models, with attention to how the number and size of the parts differ even though the two fractions themselves are the same size. Use this principle to recognize and generate equivalent fractions.

2. What are three different fractions that represent the amount of space the Palo Corona Regional Park takes up out of the entire Palo Corona ranch?
(© Doug Steakley/Getty Images)
Having this up as kids come in is a great settle down activity. You can start class by asking them for thoughts about the picture or about ideas on how they could solve the question of the day.

3. What are three different fractions that represent the amount of space the Palo Corona Regional Park takes up out of the entire Palo Corona ranch?
Ten years ago, the Big Sur Land Trust, Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District, The Nature Conservancy, and various agencies from the State of California joined together to purchase the Palo Corona ranch. The former cattle ranch is now protected for conservation in more than 15 square miles of undisturbed hills in the Carmel Valley of Monterey.
More than a quarter of the acreage is now the Palo Corona Regional Park, a hike-friendly space with wide views of the grazing lands, where cows still wander and copses of oak trees offer shade.
Depending on time, you can either have students read this silently to themselves, have one of them read out loud, or read it out loud yourself.

4. What are three different fractions that represent the amount of space the Palo Corona Regional Park takes up out of the entire Palo Corona ranch? 1
Map
Search
Where is the Palo Corona Regional Park? Find it on a map of California. 2
Web Search
What is a cattle ranch? What do people do in the section that is Palo Corona Regional Park? 3
Web Search/
Thinking
What fraction of the ranch’s acreage is taken up by the Palo Corona Regional Park? Find a model online that helps you visualize this amount. 4
What are three different fractions that represent the amount of space the Palo Corona Regional Park takes up out of the entire Palo Corona ranch?
There are a couple of ways to use this slide, depending on how much technology you have in your classroom. You can have students find answers on their own, divide them into teams to have them do all the questions competitively, or have each team find the answer to a different question and then come back together. If you’re doing teams, it is often wise to assign them roles (one person typing, one person who is in charge of sharing back the answer, etc.) 5
Bonus Question
How would you represent this amount as a decimal?

5. What are three different fractions that represent the amount of space the Palo Corona Regional Park takes up out of the entire Palo Corona ranch? 5
Minutes
You can adjust this based on how much time you want to give kids. If a group isn’t able to answer in 5 minutes, you can give them the opportunity to update at the end of class or extend time.

6. What are three different fractions that represent the amount of space the Palo Corona Regional Park takes up out of the entire Palo Corona ranch? 1
Map
Search
Where is the Palo Corona Regional Park? Find it on a map of California. 2
Web Search
What is a cattle ranch? What do people do in the section that is Palo Corona Regional Park? 3
Web Search/
Thinking
What fraction of the ranch’s acreage is taken up by the Palo Corona Regional Park? Find a model online that helps you visualize this amount. 4
What are three different fractions that represent the amount of space the Palo Corona Regional Park takes up out of the entire Palo Corona ranch?
You can ask the students verbally or let one of them come up and insert the answer or show how they got it. This way, you also have a record that you can keep as a class and share with parents, others. 5
Bonus Question
How would you represent this amount as a decimal?

7. What are three different fractions that represent the amount of space the Palo Corona Regional Park takes up out of the entire Palo Corona ranch? 1
Map
Search
Where is the Palo Corona Regional Park? Find it on a map of California.
(Possible queries: “Bing/Images: map of Palo Corona Regional park", "Bing/Maps: Palo Corona Regional Park")
Example can be found here:

8. What are three different fractions that represent the amount of space the Palo Corona Regional Park takes up out of the entire Palo Corona ranch? 2
Web Search
What is a cattle ranch? What do people do in the section that is Palo Corona Regional Park?
(Possible queries: “what is a cattle ranch?", "define: cattle ranch", "visiting Palo Corona Regional Park")
According to a Ranch article from Wikipedia (
A ranch is an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool.
In the park inside of the ranch, people can hike several different paths and observe the wide range of ecosystems and wildlife species.

9. What are three different fractions that represent the amount of space the Palo Corona Regional Park takes up out of the entire Palo Corona ranch? 3
Web Search/
Thinking
What fraction of the ranch’s acreage is taken up by the Palo Corona Regional Park? Find a model online that helps you visualize this amount.
(Possible queries: "online fraction models for kids", "showing 1/4 on visual model", "interactive fraction models for kids")
Based on the description accompanying the image, students can gather that the park takes up "one quarter" of the ranch's acreage. They should then think about how to translate this into numerical terms: 1/4.
They can search online for a visual fractal model to help them conceptualize this amount and start thinking about what equivalent fractions would be.
There are many resources online to help students visualize these conversions. For example, this is a video ( about generating equivalent fractions and this interactive model (

10. What are three different fractions that represent the amount of space the Palo Corona Regional Park takes up out of the entire Palo Corona ranch? 4
Thinking
What are three different fractions that represent the amount of space the Palo Corona Regional Park takes up out of the entire Palo Corona ranch?
Answers will vary but may include 2/8, 4/16, or 8/32, among others.
Using the online visual models they've found, or pen and paper, students should generate equivalent fractions to 1/4. Now is a good time to reiterate that anything they do to the numerator, they must do to the denominator to keep the fraction consistent. For example, if they multiply the denominator by 2 to get to eighths instead of quarters, they must also multiply the numerator by 2, proving 1/4 equivalent to 2/8.

11. What are three different fractions that represent the amount of space the Palo Corona Regional Park takes up out of the entire Palo Corona ranch? 5
Bonus Question
How would you represent this amount as a decimal?
0.25.
To solve for this, students should first ask themselves what number a decimal is out of; they should think about a decimal as a fraction with the denominator 100. What amount out of 100 is 1/4 equal to? (Hint: They may want to think about quarters being worth 25 cents). Some of the models they've found online might also help them convert this fraction to a decimal amount.

12. What are three different fractions that represent the amount of space the Palo Corona Regional Park takes up out of the entire Palo Corona ranch?
This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question.