Lessons on Measurement: Teaching Math Through Cooking

Math can be a difficult subject for some children. Young children in particular have difficulty grasping abstract concepts. Taking math out of the classroom and into the kitchen can give substance to those abstract concepts. Get into the kitchen with your kids. It is a fabulous way to teach math through cooking.

One of the best ways to teach fractions, measurements, addition, and multiplication to young children is to bake cookies. My favorite recipe to use for teaching math through cooking is Nestle Tollhouse Cookie Recipe found on any bag of Nestle chocolate chips. Start with measurements. Show the students how to measure 1 cup of flour and put it into a bowl. Then have them measure 1 cup of flour again using ½ cup measurements, 1/3 cup measurements and ¼ cup measurements. Talk about the difference in the measuring cups. How are they different? How do you know that four ¼ cups equals 1 cup? Ask them to show you. This is just one way of teaching math through cooking.

Another way to teach math through cooking is to double the cookie recipe. Ask the children how you can make enough for 48 people if your recipe only makes 24 cookies. For younger children who are not yet ready to multiply, introduce the concept of doubling and then cutting in half. You can prompt them to think about making two recipes, counting and measuring the ingredients twice. Should you make two separate recipes or just combine it all into one bowl? All of these prompts will help them think about doubling. Ask older children to multiply the recipe measurements by two. Have the children think about this question – if you need to double the ingredients, do you need to double the cooking temperature? Why or why not? Have them write a constructed response to that question. Children who are too young to write can give verbal answers.

Cooking can be a valuable tool to teach other math concepts as well. Instead of doubling a recipe, find one that needs to be increased by 1 ½ times. Also find some recipes that require reduction in the amounts used. Practice with verbal counting exercises for fractions; such as two halves equals a whole, etc. You will be amazed at how quickly young children will grasp fractions, adding, subtracting, multiplying and even dividing when you bring them into the kitchen to learn math. Always have them write down the recipes and have written constructed responses to questions.

Food satisfies a basic need for us. Satisfying this need through a math lesson that creates a tasty treat is just one way to make abstract concepts become concrete and real. Teaching math through cooking incorporates all of the 5 senses into the learning experience. Young children are tactile learners. By teaching in a way that involves all of their senses you make the lesson concrete and real to them. It is also exciting. Why not give it a try and conduct your next math lesson in a kitchen?