Cooking, Math and Making Learning Fun

Some students have difficulties with math, but when you can apply it to something they love, the understanding kicks in. I use cooking as one of my strategies to learn math skills. They get to eat their results, which is always a big hit.

I have nesting spoons and cups so the students can easily tell which is the correct measurement. For any child that needs a tactile reminder, I have brailled nesting tools, which can be bought at places like ILA or LS&S. We practice with simple measurements using rice or beans.

If you are fortunate enough to get a child young, have them read 1+1=2 and they do the math in braille, then have them measure 1 cup + 1 cup of beans to put in a bowl and have them repeat it with 1 tsp + 1 tsp = 2 tsp and 1 TB+ 1 TB = 2 Tbs. Then they go to the computer and type it out and listen to it while reading from a braille display.

By integrating academic instruction with life, they will see why they are learning certain information in school, so by the time they start to add, subtract, divide and multiple fractions and using higher math skills, they will have gained a great foundation with real life materials...teaspoons, tablespoons and cups, angles, plane, shapes and so on.