All Things Beautiful: Fractions

Kids are naturally attracted to snack foods. If you have been reading here for awhile, you have probably seen how I have incorporated food ideas in many of the activities. It is because it draws their interest and then you can wrap this natural interest around some nugget of a concept you want them to learn. It could be the layers of the earth or how the Romans made roads or it could be fractions. I have talked about how I have used measuring cup fractions with cooking on more than one occasion. Today's activity, however, was not them following a recipe but around them making up their own recipe. How empowering is that?

I got together a table full of munchies from the cabinets. The rules of the game are, however, that they have to stick within a reasonable 2-cup limit.

I had some of these cutsie little snack boxes for them to make their mixes in.

I gave them slips of paper, some of which were folded into either three sections or eight sections.
They could pick which type of paper they wanted to use and got to work writing down what they picked for their mix.

So, now the game was on.

After the ingredients were added to make 2 cups of snack mix, they shook them up to mix.

This mix is an equal mixture mixed nuts, chocolate candies, white chocolate chips, popcorn; 1/2 cup each.

This is James' mix. We call it El Blano, as it looked so white. His recipe is 1/4 cup white chocolate chips, 1 cup popcorn, 1/2 cup mini marshmallows and 1/4 cup chocolate candies.

This one had a complex recipe of 1/8+ 1/3 cup chocolate candies, 3/8 + 1/3 cup popcorn, 3/8 cup pretzels, 1/8 cup mixed fruit, 1/3 cup white chocolate chips. It all fit within the rules, however.

Here is Quentin's variety mix of 1 cup popcorn, 1/4 cup mixed nuts, 1/4 cup raisins, 1/4 cup chocolate candies, and 1/4 cup white chocolate chips.

And what goes better with a math snack than a choice of hot chocolate or tea?

source:

FreePlayLife

Today we baked bread, forming it into a bear shape, and practiced fractions. All cooking uses fractions with measuring cups and we do a lot of cooking together, so the boys have had a lot of practice with fractions in that way. Today we practiced in a different way. This recipe makes two bear shaped breads, which was perfect for my two youngest boys. If you are doing this with one child, you can model making one, while they make the other one, or the student can make two. If you are doing this with more than two students, they can take turns dividing the dough and making the bear.

You will need for this project:
2 pkg. (4.5 teaspoons) active dry yeast

2 cups milk

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

2 teaspoons salt

2 eggs

about 6 1/2 cups flour

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/3 cup warm water. (measuring with measuring cups) Heat milk, sugar, butter, and salt to 110 degrees F.(measuring of temperature with a thermometer) Add to dissolved yeast along with eggs and 3 cups of flour. Beat for 3 minutes (measuring time) on medium speed. Add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 3-5 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Place in a bowl, cover with a wet tea towel, and let rise 1 hour.

Here is where more fractions come in. Punch dough down and have a student divide the dough into fourths.
Have each student shape one of the fourths into a ball and place each one on a greased baking sheet to serve as the body of the bear.

Have each student now divide one of the fourths in half, and shape into a ball, and place above the body piece to serve as the head.

Give the two remaining fourth to the two students and have them divide each fourth into seven pieces. Shape each piece into a ball. This was a new experience for my boys, who were used to things being divided into even pieces. For their first try at this uneven dividing, they will not get them evenly divided. In this case that is okay. They won't feel like a failure because for each bear, have them pick out the four largest balls for the paws, the next two largest balls for the ears, and the smallest ball for the nose of each bear.