While I do like to explore creative ways to teach math, I may have gone a bit overboard with this one. This idea to teach fractions with cookies sounded great inside my head, but after execution my idea needs some refinement!
Since my son is so obsessed with numbers I wanted to find a fun way to introduce the concept of fractions. My mom was visiting so together we made these fraction cookies. Kitchen learning and math go together, right?
We made cookies that were whole, in halves, in quarters and in thirds. I didn’t anticipate that the actual baking process would puff up the sides of the cookies so the cooked pieces did not meet perfectly. With the second batch we scored the cookies and cut them after baking. That worked better.
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I also thought it would be fun to use the sprinkles as a visual guide to which pieces go with which cookies. I used artificial dye-free sprinkles because let’s face it, artificial colors are not food.
In the end they weren’t as pretty as they had been inside my head. (And, of course, my photos are awful!) This is often the case with me and crafty type projects!
Anyway, even if the fractions weren’t perfect, Kiddo and I chatted about the shapes so at least there was a little geometry learning in there too.
More math fun in the kitchen:
- Kitchen geometry: making hand pies
- Cooking by the numbers: soft pretzel letters and numbers
- 1o ways kids can help in the kitchen
More fraction learning ideas:
- Fraction games (free printable, part of our diy camp math series)
- Fraction card game
- DIY muffin tin geometry fraction puzzles with tangram blocks
- DIY Montessori triangles
Sarah says
This is a great idea! Way to go for creativity!
sunnymama says
Great idea, and I think they look visually appealing 😉
c2cmom says
Oh, this is an activity after my own heart. Educational, useful skill-building . . . and cookies! We're going to try this on our next snow day. Thanks for the idea and inspiration!
Sarah says
for more “visually appealing”, there are all sorts of fruits/veggies that yield natural food coloring, you could dye the cookies themselves… as 1 option.