Math in the kitchen!

This has been an uncreative week for me.  So many things I would like to make and not enough time or energy.  I finally decided on something and I need to break it into two parts this week.  The second part will take place on Saturday so I will post again that night.  For today we started our math in the kitchen with a Chex Mix party mix.  The kids measured, counted, sorted, made patterns, made shapes, and had a lot of fun in the process. 

The recipe is Chex Mix covered with a peanut butter and white chocolate mixture that is poured over the cereal.  Half the cereal is covered with powdered sugar and M&M's and sprinkles were added to the other half (in Valentine colors to be festive).  Then both parts are added together.  During the making of this mix they were able to measure all the ingredients themselves so we talked about 1 cup and 1/2 cup and 1/4 cup.  They counted out 4 1/2 cups.  

Once the mix was combined we had even more fun!  The kids were so excited about this they couldn't wait to taste it!  So we started with a little taste test and then got down to business learning math, I mean having fun playing with our food.  I gave everyone two scoops of the mix and asked them to count how many items they had on their mat.  Everyone had a different number.  My son (5 yrs. old) counted up to 32 no problem.  M (3 1/2 yrs. old) counted to 20 then need assistance on 21 and 27.  She is improving!  L (2 1/2 yrs old) counted to 5 then need assistance. 

After counting we sorted our mix.  It was interesting to see how they sorted their own mix.  My son, W, immediately divided his into piles of white cereal, brown cereal, and M&M's.  M saw what W was doing and divided her piles the same way.  L divided her piles into one pile of cereal and then M&M's separate.  She understood the concept of dividing up the mix and I liked her observation of how to sort it.

After sorting we worked on patterns.  L didn't know what to do and honestly she was more interested in our neighbor's dog in our yard.  The other kids made a pattern and then when they were finished I asked them to make another pattern to see what else they could do.  We also worked on our shapes.  They identified the shapes of the cereal and M&M's.  Next, they made a square, circle, and triangle using the cereal.  W did very well, he created his shapes quickly. M thought about how to make the shapes using the cereal.  She tried making a square but it didn't look like a square so she started over.  She took a little longer to do this task because she needed to think of what the shape looks like and how to make it. 




Counting the mix.





Sorting the mix.

Pattern

Patterns



W's shapes



M's triangle - The one white piece is the point of the triangle 

M's square & circle

Overall they were able to practice their math skills and did very well.  M still needs to work on counting in the 20's. However, she did better than last time!  They learned how to sort and make patterns.  They enjoyed the tasks and we will continue to work on this.  Saturday we will be dividing bananas into several parts...stay tuned.