Math + Food= Fun

As I mentioned in my post, "There's a Math Problem in Your Lunch," teaching math is a passion of mine. So, when I found little number cookie cutters, I was inspired!!

I decided to make a math lunch for my boys.

They each had 6 mini plates with a number cut from a tortilla. On the large plate was 1 heart sandwich, 2 ants on 2 logs (I struggled with this one... did this represent 2 or 4?), 3 carrot chips, 4 blackberries, 5 clementine slices, and 6 almonds.

Before they ate, the boys had to match the lunch items to the numbered plates.  My two year old kept wanting to count everything on the plate. For him, it may have worked better to also have these items on small plates so that each grouping was separate.

My five year old had fun matching but could have used more of a challenge. Next time, I'll probably use larger numbers for him. I'll also probably put the plates out of order and have him order them. It might also be fun to spread the items out over the large plate so that he has to use a little more estimation to try to figure out how many there are of each. By the way, he did call me out on the "ants on a log." He asked, "But why are there 2 ants-- on each?"

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