Exploring maths in the early years of childhood and discovering maths is everywhere!
What’s the equivalent of a bedtime story, for maths? Numeracy seems to play out differently from literacy in children’s daily lives – and mealtimes, rather than bedtime, can be a great way to have some gentle fun with maths from a very early age. Welcome to a series of four Mealtime Maths stories from Maths on Toast founder, Alexandra Fitzsimmons.
Second Course:
Crumpet quarters and pear circles: the maths of cutting up food
We like snacks in our house. So much that when my three year old seemed to have ‘quarter’ in his vocabulary, I could only trace it back to crumpets.
There are lots of (healthy) snacks that come as circles or squares – crumpets, pikelets, British muffins, toast… and if you are of a precise turn of mind, it’s quite satisfying to cut these into pieces. Halves, then quarters, are just one or two knife strokes away.
The trick to making this mealtime maths is to talk about it. I’ve been offering my three year old the choice of whole, half or quarters since he was tiny. This wasn’t intended as maths especially – more as a way to talk about the food we were preparing. He has strong opinions on the shape of his food, so it’s good to give him that control.
But… do you want halves or quarters? How many quarters are there? How many now? It’s the start of talking about fractions, and I know we’ll carry on with it – thirds, sixths, eighths – although bigger food like pizza may be needed for some of that!
And that’s not all: we also talk about shape when we cut up food. For example, did you know that if you cut a pear at right angles to its stalk, you get a set of circles that increase in size? This is great for talking about bigger and smaller as well as the shape itself. And do you know how to turn a circular crumpet into a square? There are several methods!
We also draw pictures with our cut up food – a real life application of shape! Pear ‘wheels’ on your toast ‘train’, anyone?