Students are asked to use a geoboard and rubber bands to create composite shapes such as a square made up of 2 rectangles, a rectangle made up of 2 squares, a rectangle made up of 3 squares, and a rectangle made up of 3 rectangles, which involves dividing rectangles into multiple parts. In Option 2 students use a geoboard to find and count squares and rectangles of varying sizes, recording how many of each they can make. Activities also have students compare and distinguish squares and rectangles by side lengths, which supports thinking about how shapes can be partitioned or composed.

Students use geoboards and rubber bands to divide squares and circles into two equal pieces and name each part a half (Activity 1). Students partition circles into four equal pieces and three equal pieces, name each piece fourth or third, and answer how many fourths or thirds make a whole (Activity 2 and Partitioning Circles sheet). Students create rectangles on the geoboard, count unit squares, and divide those rectangles into halves, thirds, and fourths (Activity 3). The materials explicitly prompt students to label and glue circles with the words "halves," "thirds," and "fourths," and note that dividing a square can produce equal halves of different shapes (rectangles vs triangles).

The introduction asks the teacher to draw a large square and ask the child to show how to divide it into halves, thirds, and fourths and to compare which shares are larger or smaller. The prompt explicitly uses the language halves, thirds, and fourths when discussing partitioning the square. The activity asks students to divide a square and reason about the relative sizes of those parts.

Students are asked to move the minute hand halfway around the clock and are told that 30 minutes is half an hour, with explicit language such as "half past three" and "half hour." The activities require students to show and write half-hour times (e.g., 3:30, 4:30) in analog, digital, and word forms and note that the minute hand points to 6 for half hours. The Writing Times materials and answer key include examples and practice matching and labeling half-hour times.

Students physically divide a circle on the geoboard into four equal parts using rubber bands and identify the quarter points corresponding to 12, 3, 6, and 9. Students count that 4 quarters make a full hour and that 2 quarters make a half hour, and they connect these quarters to clock times (quarter past, half past, quarter to). Students match clocks with labels and phrases such as 'a quarter past 8,' 'half past 11,' and '6 o'clock' in the cut-and-paste activity.

Students are asked to picture a circle divided into halves and quarters and to move the minute hand in quarter-hour increments on a geared clock. Students write a Ways to Make an Hour list that explicitly names 1 hour, 2 half hours, 4 quarter hours, and 1 half hour plus 2 quarter hours. Students place 15- and 30-minute activity cards into one-hour blocks and explain which 30-minute activities pair to make an hour and which 15-minute activities pair to make a half hour.

Students use a geoboard to divide the circle side into quarters and are instructed to create equal quarters. Students place a quarter coin in each quarter space and are told that four quarters make a whole, linking the partitioned circle to the idea of a whole. Students also identify values for 1, 2, 3, and 4 quarters (25¢, 50¢, 75¢, 100¢), reinforcing the concept of four equal shares making a whole in the money context.

Students use a geoboard and rubber bands to make shapes and to divide a square into halves, quarters, and thirds, practicing physical partitioning. Students complete a "Review: Partitioning Shapes" worksheet where they draw lines to partition circles, rectangles, squares, triangles, and diamonds into labeled halves, thirds, and fourths. Students answer questions using fraction vocabulary (halves, quarters, thirds) and count how many parts make a whole and which fractional part is larger.