Last Month...
Last month we gave you fun tips and ideas on how to teach Art & Phonics in the kitchen. This month we're moving into Math & Science. The Kitchen isn't just a fun place to get messy and make yummy foods, it's also full of numbers, measurements, and chemical reactions. Don't believe me? Just check out these fun curriculum ideas below...

Food & Nutrition Fun
The kitchen is also the perfect place to learn about health and nutrition. Read our article on Food & Nutrition and take the time to teach your kids ho w to make healthy snacking choices and these habits will last them a lifetime. And why not have fun learning about the Food Pyramid with this fun craft activity: Bring the Food Pyramid to Life!

Meal Time Math

• There's always room for basic math in the kitchen. Counting, measuring, and estimating go hand-in-hand with cooking. For example, have your kids count how many people will be sitting at the dinner table then ask them to set the table; hand your son a Ziploc full of cheerios and ask him to guess how many are in the bag; give your kids a bowl of rice and have them practice with the measuring cups and spoons; give older children recipes and ask them to convert all of the measurements into tablespoons (Kitchen Math is a great site where you can convert cups to quarts with the click of a mouse!); or ask your daughter to divide 8 cookies amongst 4 people... the learning possibilities are endless!



• Have you ever heard of tangrams? These are ancient Chinese puzzles based on 7 simple shapes that can be arranged in a multitude of images. Check out this Tangram Site for easy, printable puzzle ideas (plus solutions!), then cut out sandwiches, fruit, or veggies, into geometric shapes and see if your kids can solve the puzzles! The winner gets to eat the puzzle!



• Use cookie cutters in the shape of numbers to create yummy cookie numbers. Ask your child to top each cookie with the appropriate number of goodies. For example, the 1 could be topped with one pecan, the 2 with two candies, etc.

Savory Science

• Scholastic and the Magic School Bus have a great site full of hands-on science lesson ideas that can easily be performed in the kitchen. For example, you might ask your child: Why do some things float and some things sink? Find out with this experiment: Ups and Downs.



• Ever wondered how we're able to smell things? Learn how smells, in the form of molecules, travel through the air to your nose with this Magic School Bus experiment: Makes a Stink.



• See if your kids can build a support for their favorite small toy. Choose a plush toy that weighs about 1 pound, then give your kids uncooked spaghetti and mini marshmallows. Tell them to use these materials to build a support frame that will hold the toy without breaking. The spaghetti is very fragile, but if they can use geometry and spatial relations properly, they should be able to build something strong (and edible!).



• Can you pick up the ice without touching it? Give your child a glass of ice water and ask them to fish out an ice cube without touching it. What can we do? Give them two materials: a piece of string and some salt. Explain how the properties in salt make ice melt faster. The solution? Put the string on top of an ice cube and sprinkle with salt. After about 45 seconds, the salt will make the ice melt and the string will become inbedded in the cube! Now just pull the ice cube out of the water!