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