The children in my life struggle with fractions.
Even the mention of them is enough to cause a few of them anxiety. Moving
the learning of fractions in the kitchen made things so much easier and far
less painful.
To begin pick a simple recipe with few ingredients and
whole cup ingredients. Rice Crispy treats or pudding work well.
Read the directions out loud and demonstrate how to measure the
ingredients. Let the children practice measuring liquids and dry
ingredients. When the recipe is completed have the children help wash the
dishes by hand and encourage them to measure different amounts of dish water
and rinse water. Let them have fun!
The next time make things a bit more difficult. Use
partial cup measures (like the tin or plastic ½, 1/3, or ¼ cup measures) to
measure a cup of ingredients. For example, a recipe calls for one cup of
rice. Have the child or children measure four ¼ cup measures into the
pan. A few times doing this and children know that the bottom number of
the fraction indicates how many are needed to make a whole cup. Once this
is familiar – use a ¼ cup measure to get a half of a cup. Before long the
children have a very clear understanding of basic fractions.
As the children progress to move complex learning,
increase the complexity of the cooking. Multiplication of fractions is
easily introduced by double or tripling a recipe for company. Start with
the recipe, paper and pencils. Explain that you are going to double the
recipe. One by one show the child or children how to multiply the amount of
each ingredient. After you do a couple, ask them to figure the next
one. Continue the practice with another recipe (even if you are not going
to make it that day).
Follow each session in the kitchen with written material
or worksheets to reinforce what the child or children learned in the
kitchen. It is not nearly as difficult when it is connected to the real
application see and done in the kitchen.
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