Teaching Students About Using Fractions With Cooking

Fraction worksheets have a tendency to induce students' snooze mode but teaching students about using fractions with cooking puts the skill in a motivating and enjoyable context. The prospect of a tasty treat at the end and the satisfaction of making it themselves turns the learning from dull to exciting. With the focus on the cooking process and the end product, students learn fractions and measurement while hardly noticing the math thinking that goes along with the hands-on demonstration of how fractions combine to create the correct measurements for cooking.

Things You'll Need

  • Recipe and ingredients
  • Measuring cups (dry and liquid)
  • Measuring spoons
  • Knife
  • Mixing bowls
  • Beaters or electric mixers
  • Spoons
  • Spatulas
  • Cake pans
  • Cookie sheets
  • Baking dishes
  • Water
  • Dry beans
Show More

Instructions

    • 1

      Select a simple recipe or let the students select one. Gather the ingredients, measuring cups and spoons, knife and necessary utensils such as mixing bowls, beaters or electric mixers, spoons, spatulas, cake pans, cookie sheets and baking dishes.

    • 2

      Point out the recipe yield and discuss that each recipe only makes enough for a certain amount of people. If you have more or less people than the recipe provides for, you have to double or triple the recipe for more people, or cut it in half, fourth or third for less. Count up how many people you have to feed and compare with the yield to determine whether you need to scale the recipe up or down and by what factor to have enough for everyone without excessive leftovers.

    • 3

      Calculate the new measurement for each ingredient. Demonstrate multiplication and division of fractions if students need help with this.

    • 4

      Let the students read the recipe and take charge of measuring all the ingredients. Have them follow the directions as printed to mix and bake their goodies.

    • 5

      Hold a class tasting party to determine if they accurately followed instructions and measured correctly to produce a tasty treat.

Learnify Hub © www.0685.com All Rights Reserved