Hey everyone! We are on week 2 of our transition to home-based learning. If you read my last post (check it out HERE) I mentioned how cooking and baking can be useful tools in teaching mathematics and I wanted to share in more depth how to incorporate learning in the kitchen. I am a firm believer that hands-on learning is the best way to learn and that is why I love this topic. I will also be sharing about our recent pizza night learning lesson and my review on Dapper & Doll’s Kids Chef Hat and Apron set so make sure to read through to the end!
How to Incorporate Math in the Kitchen:
- Measurements:
- Having children measure out ingredients can help teach fractions as well as teach size difference (tsp vs tbs, pint vs quart, etc.)
- Estimates. Estimates vs exact measurements as most recipes require the exact measurement of ingredients to taste correctly.
- Weight. If you have a kitchen scale this is a great tool for teaching how to weigh things correctly and adding or subtracting amounts to get to the weight needed.
- Reasoning and Conversions: Some recipes do require to be changed for example:
- Making a smaller or bigger amount than the recipe your following. This is a great lesson for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Adding more or less of ingredients/amount of batches needed.
- Reasoning. When making the above changes reasoning can come into play with the time needed to cook, as that will have to be adjusted as well.
Learning in the kitchen also goes beyond mathematics. Teaching children to cook is such an important life skill, can be a great lesson on hygiene and proper food handling procedures (such as hand washing), as well as time management.
Pizza Night Learning Lesson:
We decided to make our own pizza the other night with a pizza kit purchased from our local pizzeria, La Famiglia. I thought this would be a fun hands-on approach to teach Landon about fractions, problem solving, reasoning, and proper food handling procedures.
- Problem Solving & Reasoning: Since the ingredients were prepackaged we did not need to measure things out however, we used reasoning and problem solving to figure out if we were using all of the servings provided of sauce, cheese, and pepperoni, or if we needed to alter the amount. We also used this method to figure out the cooking time after researching a few different recipes.
- Fractions: While cooking we decided half (1/2) of the pie would have pepperoni. After cooking and cooling we cut up the pizza into 8 slices and kept track of the fractions as we ate, for example, the first slice, one slice, = 1/8 of the pizza.
We all had a ton of fun -plus the pizza was absolutely delicious!
Dapper & Doll Kids Apron and Chef Hat Set:
Landon is wearing Dapper & Doll Kids apron and chef hat set above. We were gifted this set for an honest review, and I am pleased to say we absolutely love it! Landon loves wearing his apron and hat as he feels like a “real life chef” in it. I personally love the apron for a few reasons:
- The apron fits him perfectly because of the adjustable neck strap.
- The material is durable & sturdy. Landon tends to rip things easily, #boymomlife, and so far so good! It also washes very well.
- The chef hat stretches. I was honestly unsure if it would fit him when looking at it in the bag, but was glad to see it was stretchable in the back once we took it out.
- It’s multipurpose. This apron is also great for crafting.
- Lastly, he just looks so darn cute in it!
You can purchase your own set on Amazon HERE and read more about Dapper & Doll (a mom-owned business) at www.dapperanddoll.com
How do you incorporate learning in the kitchen at home? Share below!
I love how you can incorporate learning into everyday life!
I love teaching my kids how to cook! How cute is that apron set? My daughter would love it!
Yes yes yes! Love this. We are trying to do similar things…our kids are 4 and 2 so it takes some modification but we love it!