Math with Sweet Treats
While children may not understand math, they certainly understand food. Heather, creator of Blog, She Wrote, designed a great activity that combines fun snacks with a lesson in math.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Most of your students will be ecstatic if you bring in a sweet treat. For health and safety reasons, most districts will require you to bring in a store bought snack, but it will work just the same for the activity. Provide each of your students with a recipe for homemade chocolate chip cookies and an ingredient price sheet. The ingredient sheet should include the actual volume of the product bought at the store along with its corresponding price. Have your students determine the cost of the original recipe taking the values needed for the recipe and price/volume ratios.
Another extension of the activity involves fractions. Have your students begin with the original recipe and multiply it out into larger batches (i.e. 1 batch takes 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 2 batches would take 1 teaspoon, 3 would take..., 4 would take...)
Your students will never be more encouraged to do math!
For more resources for teaching mathematics as well as many other subjects check out our online store!