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Teaching Idea: Fractions and Food
Grade level: K-5
Objective: Students will practice multiplying and dividing fractions in a real-world context.
National Curriculum Standard(s):
Principles and Standards for School Mathematics
- Problem Solving Standard [Grade 3-5]: Instructional programs from prekindergarten through grade 12 should enable all students to solve problems that arise in mathematics and in other contexts.
- Number and Operations Standard: Instructional programs from prekindergarten through grade 12 should enable all students to understand numbers, ways of representing numbers, relationships among numbers, and number systems.
- [Grade 3-5]: All students should develop an understanding of fractions as parts of unit wholes, as parts of a collection, as locations on number lines, and as divisions of whole numbers.
Developed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Time Requirement:
Preparation: 20 minutes
In-class: 50 minutes
Materials:
CultureGrams Online Edition: Recipe Collection
Instructions:
- Tell your students that they are chefs for the president of the United States. They are in charge of preparing the menu for an upcoming dinner, which will be attended by diplomats from all over the world. The president would like to serve all the diplomats dishes from their own countries.
- Assign each student to pick a different country to be in charge of. After the students have had a chance to look up the recipes for their country, which are found in the Online CultureGrams Recipe Collection, tell them that they will need to double the recipes for the main and side dishes in order to feed all of the diplomats. Explain to the students that they will need to triple the dessert recipes, though, because the diplomats have a sweet tooth. They should pay special attention to doubling and tripling the fractions in the recipes.
- When the students are done with their calculations, tell them that you have just received a memo from the White House saying that due to unexpected events, the dinner has been postponed and as a result several diplomats will not be able to attend. The students now need to halve the original recipes for main and side dishes and -- as several diplomats have lately decided to go on a diet -- quarter the dessert recipes.
- Have students check their fractions against each other's recipes to make sure their calculations are correct and that they will turn out delicious on the big night!
Extension Activity: Being able to multiply and divide fractions is not the only math skill good cooks need. They also need to know how to convert metric measurements to English ones, especially if they're making international recipes. After teaching the students a few conversion formulas, have them practice converting a series of measurements.
How do you use CultureGrams and World Conflicts Today in your school? Submit your teaching ideas to our editors today, and your activity might show up in a future issue of this newsletter!
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