Math Adventures: Cooking & Math

There are so many math concepts that you can cover while cooking with your children.

Today I made bread with my fourth student and used only a half cup and a half teaspoon measure.

Not only does it review the concept that one-half and one-half equals a whole,
but he had to convert 4 1/2 cups of flour to 1/2 cups. If I had been baking with my fifth student, I would have gotten out a cup measure for him to see that it held two half-cup measures of flour.
When we needed to add 2 Tablespoons of yeast, we reviewed that 3 teaspoons equals 1 Tablespoon, so he had to determine how many half-teaspoons that would make, which is a two step process; converting first to teaspoons and then to half-teaspoons. Because the application is tangible, he happily and easily tackled the adding and subtracting of fractions with like denominators.
We completed these activities several times, as we added new ingredients.


















Later when it was time to preheat the oven, we looked at the temperature dial and talked about relative temperatures. He then set the dial to preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.


For older students, I could decide to increase or decrease a recipe to practice multiplying or dividing fractions. I could also have them use ratios and proportions.

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