Key Lime Pie, Muscles & More

Preparing key lime pie with little helpers, I realized our taste buds and our handwriting skills would benefit from our efforts. Little fingers reach for half a key lime, then squeeze citrus juice into a bowl, a perfect way for our littles to help prepare treats in the kitchen and strengthen fine motor skills needed to write. Thirty-five key limes later, we were ready to mix--another opportunity to strengthen muscles!

We strengthened muscles but we also built conversation skills and did a little learning. Here is what we did:

• We compared the size, color, and taste of key limes to oranges, limes, grapefruits, and lemons. Order by size. (Math, Science)
• Defined and discussed spheres in regards to the citrus. Found other spheres around the house.
• Measure the circumferences of several types of citrus with a string. Then measure the strings on a ruler to compare circumferences. Lay strings in order, shortest to longest. (Math)
• Count the fruit sections of an orange, lime, key lime, grapefruit, and lemon. Are they the same or different? (Math, Critical Thinking)
• Read the book Each Orange Had 8 Slices, Paul Giganti, Jr. 
• Draw still life pictures of the fruit, practicing shading techniques. (Art)
• Set the oven at 375 degrees. Write the temperature on a piece of paper using numbers and degrees symbol. (Math)
• Set a kitchen timer for the length of time the pie will bake. Write the ending time on the piece of paper with the oven temperature.(Math) 
• When the pie cools, discuss the definitions of diameter and radius. Measure the diameter of the cooled pie. Divide by 2 to find the radius. (Math)

Looking for ways to connect preparing snacks and meals to learning for your littles? Check out my resource, Flip Three Pancakes with One Spatula.

Skittles Math

Skittles, 49 cents at the local Walgreens.

Breakfast dishes in the dishwasher. Mom has a surprise!

Bag opens. Mom pulls out five small bags of .....SKITTLES! 

Time for Skittle math. 

First we sorted the colors. The littlest learners loved this!

We counted.

Then we used mom's circle cutter to cut out construction paper circles in corresponding colors.

Then we graphed the colors. 

Oh no! Problem!

13 circles don't fit on the paper.

One learner's solution: 

one circle = 2 Skittles

1/2 circle = 1 Skittle

Problem solved!

Counted and graphed.

We discovered of the five bags of Skittles we opened (each child had their own bag), two bags contained 61 Skittles and three bags contained 62 Skittles. I asked the children to look at the weights on the bags. Same weights. Interesting. 

Could a machine deposit Skittles in each bag according to weight? 

Great question asked by one learner. Others agreed this must be the case. 

One learner added Skittles of two different colors. 

Two-digit addition. Visual representation.

One learner decided to represent each color as a fraction of the whole bag. 

Each learner used their empty package to create a unique cover to their Skittles Math book. 

Sale

Interest

Math

Problem solving

Understanding

LOVE!

Weighty Matters: Kitchen Scale FUN!

Kitchen scales bring math to life. None threatening. Almost unnoticed. Naturally. 

When our oldest was five years old we replaced our familiar preschool bucket balance scale (the simple one which determined lightest and heaviest without numerical connection) with a $9.99 kitchen scale from Walmart. The minute the box opened items were placed on the scale: a potato, a toy car, a box of tea bags, mom's slipper. Anything that could be weighed was. Even liquids were weighed, thanks to the nifty plastic bucket which could be placed on the scale. Which is heavier, the potato or the slipper? Which weighs more, a cup of sugar or a cup of rice? By the end of the day, our son knew how to read a mechanical kitchen scale, purely due to his interest in our new found measuring tool.

We've also had opportunities to use digital scales. Experiences with digital scales has offered a nonthreatening opportunities to teach greater and less than using decimals. Decimal scales also sparked an interest in adding decimals; a concept often not introduced until third or fourth grade but understandable when taught earlier with real life application.

Eighteen years and six children later, our mechanical kitchen scale continues to be one of our favorite measuring tools. Our scale introduced and helped us to express comparison of weight, measurement terminology, measurement conversion, and number operations using weight units. Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of using our scale has been our children having the opportunity to once again take math off a one dimensional page and apply it to their very active lives.


Our children want to know more about scales? Click here!

A Handsomely Fabulous Way to Learn Measurement

Searching the internet, I happened across a great way to teach or to reinforce units of capacity. I love hands-on, interactive ways to teach and to learn math, so Measurement Man was right up my alley, I mean abacus.

My girls LOVED this activity which is the best I have found to teach this concept in a hands-on, concrete method.

I posted the link on the Flip Three Pancakes page of my website. If you liked Measurement Man, you will love the other activities I posted.

Chocolate + Fruit Chews = Math

All Candy 50% Off!

These signs scream math. Practical every day uses for math. And, yummy uses to boot!

Halloween two days behind us, stores in our area are posting opportunities to use practical math. 50% off $6.99, 75% off retail, and buy-one-get-two.

Reading math. Writing math. Doing math. Doesn't matter. It's all learning. Everyone gets involved. Here are some of the fun activities we've tried when chocolate and fruit chews present themselves as deals too good to pass up:

• We purchase two to four types of chocolates and survey anyone who stops by our house :) If we're really feeling generous, we ask the person which type of candy is his or her favorite and then let them eat it. We ask for the empty wrapper and then use the "trash" for our graph.

• We purchase M&M or Skittles fun packs and hand them out to whomever might want to experience math with us. (Now you know why the neighborhood kids like our house) We count, sort, pattern, add colors (or three for practice with multiple addends), subtract colors (we do that last so we can eat while we subtract), figure percentages and ratios, and even talk probability (what is the probability of choosing a red M&M from the bag?) All in all, it is a fun time for every age.

• My older children love to use math to determine whether or not they are getting a "sweet" bargain. We figure out cost (If a bag of candy costs $3.99 and the sale is 50% off, what will be pay?) and cost per unit (If the bag of fruit chews costs $2.19 and there are 50 chews per bag, what is the cost of each individual chew?). Mom makes up additional hypothetical scenarios (If you have a $10.00 bill in your pocket and the candy is $3.29 per bag, how many bags could you buy and how much change would you receive from your purchase?) This has leads to conversation about sales tax, taxable and non-taxable items, and cost per pound. Yes, we've weighed candy with a kitchen scale. Very energizing.

These yummy math ideas (and more) are compiled in my Flip Three Pancakes With One Spatula book, a resource I put together after years of hands-on math activities. Yes, my children love to eat their math. Stop by my website and click on the Flip Three Pancakes page. You will find lots of resources. ENJOY!

Math in Our Lunch

We've encountered math in our lunch! Amazing how the best math lessons seem to happen spontaneously. How, you ask? Here are some examples (with some added extras for the adventurous):

• Cut deli-sliced cheese and meat into equal parts. Discuss halves, quarters, thirds. Write the fractions (to extend to the symbolic representation).
• Cut a sandwich in two equal pieces. Discuss equal and half. Write the fraction. Older children could cut sandwich into fourths. Discuss equal fractions and introduce adding fractions with like denominators.
  
• Cut rectangle slices off the end of a rectangular prism of cheese. Find other rectangular prisms in the kitchen (boxes of crackers, cereal, tea bags, etc.).
• Identify additional solid figures (cubes, cones, spheres, and cylinders). Compare to geometric shapes: circle, rectangle, square, triangle, and oval.
  
• Cut each rectangle slices of cheese into two squares and placed on a circular cracker. Find other squares and circles around the house. Look for right angles. Discuss straight and curved lines. Estimate the circumference of the cracker. Write the number to represent the estimate. Measure circumference of the cracker with a string and then measure the string with a ruler. Write the actual length and find the difference between the estimate and the actual.
  
• Measured the height, length, and width of the faces of the cheese block. Older children could calculate the volume.
• Discussed right angles, sides, angles, faces, length, width, height, circumference, diameter, and radius.

These an other kitchen math adventures are available in my Flip Three Pancakes with One Spatula book.

Helpful resources:
http://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/cuboids-rectangular-prisms.html (concept explanations)
http://www.tcpl.lib.in.us/youth/mathconcepts.htm (book lists for related math topics)
http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/parents/Math/grocerymath.html (math in the grocery store)

Aldi Deal Turned Amazing Math Lesson

Haven't blogged since late June...evaluation season, summer, husband home, morning sickness, pre-writing research, let's just say, blogging sadly took a back seat.

Had to take a break from my day's schedule of writing and grading to pass along the wonder and enjoyment of a learning adventure which took place in our home today. It all started with a milk-induced trip to the local Aldi supermarket. Further down the milk aisle, a fabulous deal on sixteen inch pizzas caught my eye. I loaded four into my cart.

Arriving home, children welcomed me. MILK! We unloaded, and of course the twenty-inch pizza boxes caught their eyes. Never (except for at Nanny's house on Sunday when she feeds fifteen to twenty people) had they seen so many pizza boxes. We quickly discovered the large boxes would not fit in the freezer (our first math problem). We took the pizzas out of the box and the next thing I knew shouts of joy and creativity pierced my ears. They wanted the boxes for "their restaurant".

After saving the cardboard boxes from a trip to the recycle bin, the four girls, ages four to twelve, began to brainstorm what diameter pizza would fit in the box. This was done by invading my buffet of circular platters. Each platter, after estimating its size, made its way into the box confirming the hypothesis of whether or not it would fit. Large pizza size- solved! "Oh, wait we need medium and smalls!" I heard. "We have to figure out the size of the small pizzas and see how many will fit in one box." Within an hour, a variety of small, medium, and large crusts lay on the kitchen table.

Next: the toppings. The four girls began helping one another cut geometric shapes from our scrap box of construction paper: circle pepperoni, oval sausage, triangle mushrooms, and rectangle cheese. An hour and thirty minutes later, pizzas were complete. Time to make menus.

When given the time and access to resources, great learning takes place. Oh, yes, there was mess- hundreds of shredded pieces of construction paper on the carpet. I decided to do some writing in the next room (within earshot, of course)so I would torture myself by watching the paper shredding process. Somehow, two and one-half hours later (yes, I was in and out of the room, but chose not to stress) the learning that took place outweighed the confetti party on my carpet.

The girls have now invited the neighbor over to play pizza delivery with menus and prices, so the learning continues. And I did nothing (except make the platters, paper and glue available) to make it happen. I could not have planned it any better.

Sorry there are no pictures...perhaps I will add them later when the pizzas are not being played with, I mean learned with!

Math and pizza related library resources:
Pizza Counting, Christina Dobson
Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza, Philmon Sturges
Let's Make Pizza, Mary Hill
The Coin Counting Book, Rozanne Lanczak Williams
Give Me Half, Stuart Murphy
Dimes, Mary Hill
Dollars, Mary Hill
Piece=Part=Portion, Scott Gifford

Want more ideas about how to teach math through everyday learning experiences, especially food preparation. Check out my book Flip Three Pancakes with One Spatula.

Bring Math to Life, Add Life to Math

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. ~William A. Ward

Math is one of those subjects that, for some, brings panic, fear, and anxiety -- angst at the very mention of multiply, sum, percent, or ratio. How do the emotions come to be? My guess is somewhere between the coins in a child's piggy bank and the black and white symbols of a textbook.

We love math when it applies to life and it makes a difference. Not a week goes by that one of my children doesn't climb upon a shelf to retrieve a bank and count the contents. For the older ones, math makes a difference when the stock market dips or real estate stagnates. Life is full of math.

Lately, life has dished us plenty of math. Is the birthday cake big enough to feed the guests at the table? How M&Ms can I pull from the bag before I get a red one? How much did each individual hanger cost in the BONUS pack of 20? How many mission trip support letters could be mailed for $10.25? When math makes a difference, it is understood. When math is understood, it makes a difference. This cycle inspires further learning.

Over sixteen years of homeschooling, we've brought math to life and we've added life to our math. Math for our children is real -- concrete -- part of everyday life. There is no panic, no fear, no anxiety. We live it. We get it.

How can you bring math to life, add life to math? I've included some of our favorite math activities in Flip Three Pancakes with One Spatula. But there is more than math. There's language arts, science, social studies, and art. To bring math to life, it most be woven into living. For example, a child could create clay spheres or they could help mom make meatballs. Then a spherical orange can be cut into equal parts and then squeezed to make orange juice. Reading Each Orange Has Eight Slices by Paul Giganti reinforces fractional concepts. That's flipping three pancakes with one spatula, and that's bringing math to life.

Sites to help bring math to life:
http://www.mathcats.com/grownupcats/ideabankfractions.html


http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/parents/Math/mathhome.html


http://letsplaymath.net/


http://www.mathsisfun.com/fractions.html


http://www.abcteach.com/free/m/measurementsinmyhome.pdf

When God Provides Three Pounds of Apples....

When God provides three pounds of apples for $1.00, make...applesauce, and apple pie. That's just what we did!

This weekend, Saturday to be exact, I happened upon an amazing sale: a three pound bag of apples for $1.00. I purchased several, tossed them in the backseat and drove home, proud as a peacock. My husband was somewhat astonished.

Bright and early this morning (no the internal clocks of my children did not automatically reset) my oldest daughter asked to make pie. That request led to applesauce. And so, by mid-morning the house smells of sweet scents of fall. I'm convinced if I look out the window, hues of brown, orange, yellow and red will paint the countryside. Though some of you may have that delight, we in the sunny south are blessed with palm trees and evergreens. Nonetheless, my house smells of fall.

Baking the apple pie reminded me of the several recipes and activities from Flip Three Pancakes With One Spatula. Out came the books and poof, we spent the morning with apples instead of starting the moon study I had intended. Oh well, that was my plan, not THE PLAN.

Here are some ideas (in case you find an apple bargain):

• Use an apple slicer to slice an apple into eight equal parts. Discuss how many slices make up half an apple and a quarter of the apple. Divide the slices evenly among the people at the table. Add peanut butter for a yummy snack.
• Cut an apple in half length-wise and width-wise. Discuss the differences. Talk about symmetry. Count the seeds.
• Purchase three or four types of apples. How do they taste? Do some taste differently? Some sweet? some sour? Make a graph of the family favorites.
• Arrange whole apples (preferably different types) on the table and draw an apple still life. Discuss shading and light source.
• Visit an apple orchard and pick apples.
• Make an apple pie.
• Make applesauce.

Read some good books:

• Apples! by Ken Robbins
• The Apple Orchard by Patricia J. Murphy
• Apples! Apples! by Gail Gibbons
• From Apples to Applesauce by Kristen Thoennes Keller
• How Do Apples Grow? by Betsy Maestro
• Apple Fractions by Jerry Pallotta

It's "P" Day

Grab the magazines, construction paper, scissors, and paste! We cutting out pictures that start with the letter P. After we cut "P" pictures, we will be dining on Piggies in a Blanket (hot dogs cut in half and wrapped in biscuit) and then reading books about pigs. We may decide to act out The Three Pigs or pull out the flannel board version. Any one for a game of Parchesi? Later today we are going to a local parade to watch our cousin march with his high school band. He is a percussionist. Perfect!

Pig books:
If you Give a Pig a Pancake, Laura Numeroff
Pigs, Gail Gibbons
All Pigs are Beautiful, Dick King-Smith
The Book of Pigericks: Pig Limericks, Arnold Lobel
Pig, Jules Older

Preschool piggie ideas http://stepbystepcc.com/animals/pigs.html

Lots of piggie activities http://webtech.kennesaw.edu/jcheek3/pigs.htm

More piggie stuff http://www.northcanton.sparcc.org/~orchard/pigs/pigs.htm

If you don't like piggies, how about popcorn, peacocks, pancakes, or pandas...

Popcorn
Popcorn Plants, Kathleen V. Kudlinski
Popcorn activities http://webtech.kennesaw.edu/jcheek3/popcorn.htm

Peacocks
Colorful Peacocks, Deborah Underwood

Pancakes
Miss Mable's Table, Deborah Chandra
Curious George Makes Pancakes, H. A. Rey
From Maple Trees to Maple Syrup, Kristen Thoennes Keller
Ideas for teaching math while making pancakes and other foods, check out Flip Three Pancakes with One Spatula http://www.cherylbastian.com/flip3pancakes

Pandas
Giant Pandas, Gail Gibbons
Follow the giant pandas at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/GiantPandas/default.cfm
Panda activities http://www.first-school.ws/activities/animals/wild/panda-giant.htm

Sew Sweet!

This weekend found my daughter and I in stitches! My daughter's sewing skills amaze me, as does her ambition. Beginning this summer she began sewing aprons to accompany my Flip Three Pancakes math/cooking curriculum and has been quite busy. I love the colors and patterns she chooses! She has an eye for design.

This weekend I pitched in to help her fill a large order, 5 adult reversible holiday aprons (one side Thanksgiving and the other Christmas) and 1 Gator apron (which she gave her aunt as a birthday present). And so, together, we were in stitches. I loved it! Working along side my sweet daughter on a shared project. Treasured memories!

This is the peppermint pattern she finished last week.

More patterns are are available at the bookstore page of my website http://www.cherylbastian.com/bookstore. She also takes custom orders. Wonder what pattern she will be sewing today?

Flip Three Pancakes Reviewed in Take Root and Write

Meredith Curtis reviewed my book, Flip Three Pancakes with One Spatula, this week in Take Root and Write.

Flip Three Pancakes is a math curriculum and a cookbook packed with ideas to teach math while preparing meals with children ages 3-8. The activities included in the book are based on grade level skills taught in K-2nd grade and have been used in our life learning adventures.

Check out the review at:
http://issuu.com/noellemena/docs/trwdm-issue25-2009-august10-14?mode=a_p (scroll down to page 26)

The same review was posted at Joyful and Successful Homeschooling Reviews:
http://www.takerootandwrite.com/2009/08/flip-3-pancakes-with-1-spatula-review.html#more

Need an apron or chef's hat for your cooking adventures? Check out this week's fabric colors at http://www.cherylbastian.com/bookstore. The aprons make great gifts, too.

Happy cooking!

Melon Balls: How our Lunch Shaped Up

I've missed blogging, sharing stories from our life. Many weeks have passed, many blogs I wanted to write, but didn't have time to type. Maybe you will hear those later.

Today, however, math jumped out of our watermelon. Our oldest daughter was helping prepare lunch. She pulled the watermelon out of the fridge as the other daughter yelled, "Let's make melon balls!" Perfect. The younger children hadn't heard of melon balls. We took turns balling the melon into spheres of all sizes and density. Soon we have a whole bowl full of spheres and began thinking of other spheres we knew: globes, soccer balls, baseballs, soap-on-a-rope, golf balls. eyeballs. Our list ran long;the gears in our minds, spinning. By the time we made and ate 50 melon balls (counting by ones and then tens) we understood the concept of "sphere".

Learning while preparing and eating food is what my book Flip Three Pancakes with One Spatula is all about. Each lesson teaches a math concept and then extends the lesson to content areas, suggesting titles of books for additional practice or reinforcement.

So, in keeping with the concept of "sphere", here are ways to extend and reinforce the lesson.

1. Round up an orange, either off the tree, fresh off the orange tree in the backyard or from the fruit basket. Compare its spherical shape with the shape of a flat one-dimensional circle. Discuss the differences. Find examples about the house or on a nature walk. Read Circles Around Town by Nathan Olson or Circles by Sarah Schuette.

2. Cut the orange in 8 slices and divide evenly (if possible) among those at the table. Discuss the orange in terms of its fractional parts: half, quarters and eighths. Read Each Orange Had 8 Slices: A Counting Book by Paul Giganti, Jr.

3. Use a set of fraction circles to experiment with fractional parts of a circle. Cut out your own fraction circles from construction paper.

4. Measure the circumference of the orange with a string. Measure the circumference of other spheres in the home (golf ball, baseball, or beach ball). How does the circumference of the orange compare in length with the other spheres?

5. Make fresh squeezed orange juice.

6. Discuss the nutritional value of oranges. Hint: think Vitamin C, scurvy and the like.

7. Visit an orange packing plant or grove.

8. Draw and shade an orange, talking about light, dark and shadows. Research shading on the Internet, with a parent's supervision, of course.

9. Read Sunny Numbers: A Florida Counting Book by Carol Crane.

10. Mix red and yellow paint to make orange. Add black and white to make shades and tints. Use the paints to sponge paint with circles or to paint an orange, shaded with the tints of orange paint.

Bite-sized Math

You might be wondering why I am posting Bite-sized Math on a blog that has to do with stories. I am too, but I just had to share about our math experience today. Remember, there's always a story!

Today I purchased bite-sized bagel pizzas. They were the special bargain at the local discount grocery. When we opened the box, the bagel pizzas were neatly arranged 3x3 on a square plate. Ah! Math before our eyes! We quickly realized that there were 9 bagel pizzas on the tray because our minds saw the 3x3 array.

Skip ahead one hour. Tummies full, time for school! Five of us sat on the living room floor with papers and pencil in hand (and Monopoly Jr. to the side). One daughter worked on simple addition, one daughter was writing sentences, the toddler was cutting up the remains of an old workbook, and the other daughter was working with me on division. To her, on this day, the numbers were foreign symbols. We reviewed the division concept. I brought out objects. That helped some. And then it dawned on me. She was the one who recognized the 3x3 pizza bites. Ah, yes! Something, a mental picture and yummy lunch, to which she could relate.

I explained that our equations on the paper were just like the bagel bites. "If we had a tray of nine bagel pizzas and three friends, how many bagel pizzas would each friend get?" Her eyes lit up! A light bulb moment! Each equation was a pizza problem. I stated each equation in terms of pizzas and friends and the concept was again, understandable.

"We have a tray of thirty-two bagel pizzas and four friends, how many pizzas will each friend get? We have a tray of forty bagel pizzas and two friends, how many pizzas will each friend get?" When the numbers grew larger, the eyes of all the children (who had been listening and started to get the concept) looked in amazement. Twenty bagel pizzas! WOW! That is quite a lunch!

And so, the story is this...life is full of lessons, even math lessons.

There are some fun, well-written children's books which reinforce the multiplication and division concepts. One of our favorites is The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins, however the library is full of fun math books, waiting to be tossed into your library bag. Grab a pizza. Divide it up evenly and then fall into the couch for an afternoon of read-aloud!

Sea Squares by Joy N. Hume

How Many Feet, How Many Tales? by Marilyn Burns

Hershey's Milk Chocolate Multiplication Book by Jerry Pallotta

Looking for more yummy math lessons? Check out my NEW book Flip Three Pancakes With One Spatula! It's packed with ways to prepare a meal or snack with your child and suggests books related to the recipe. A great way to prepare a meal, learn math and spend some quiet moments in a book.