About Recipes: Recipes are a great way to get genuine buy-in on math concepts from students. When I previously used recipes in my classes, students became very engaged because the recipes were a real-world tie-in to what we were learning. Most upper elementary students understand the purpose of a recipe, and they can be used to pose real-life problems. For example, students can strengthen knowledge of adding and multiplying fractions by doubling a recipe, or they can strengthen their knowledge of adding and multiplying decimals by adding up the cost of the real ingredients using online shopping apps or grocery store newspaper inserts.
Cross-Curricular Ties: Even though recipes lend themselves to excellent real-world math connections, perhaps more exciting is how they allow for cross-curricular ties to reading. Whenever I find a quality read aloud that prominently features a food item (carrots, pumpkins, cranberries, etc.), I immediately start searching for simple, kid-friendly recipes I can use in an enriching way to tie the read aloud to recipe activities.
These activities don’t have to be exclusively math-related. Sometimes I ask students to sequence the events for making a recipe or to draw a step-by-step guide to go along with it. On multiple occasions, we’ve found a recipe we can make in class, and we do a science exploration of the food item(s) using our five senses. The possibilities are limitless! (Check out our full units for Creepy Carrots, Pumpkin Soup, and Cranberry Thanksgiving for some great recipe integrations in literature units or check out our full Rounding Out the Read Aloud Fall Themed Bundle.)
How to Use this Activity: Print the recipe pages front-to-back so the recipe prints on the opposite side of the image. Print on cardstock and laminate for durability and reuse. Then choose which recipe you want students to use. There are two activities included in this freebie (for access to every carrot recipe and activity, see the full unit for Creepy Carrots in our TPT store.)
- Double the Recipe: Students use their knowledge of adding and multiplying fractions to double one of the recipes.
- Grocery List: Students look for the ingredients online and price out how much each item costs. They use their knowledge of division and multiplication (adding tax) and addition to figure out how much it would cost to make the full recipe. If they find coupons, encourage them to factor that information into their totals.
We hope you love using recipes in your classroom as much as we do!
