It’s possible to say that nothing motivates a preschooler to use math skills more than snack time—“he got more than me!” Snack time flips some internal math switch inside the brains of children and turns them into mini mathematicians as well as politicians and master negotiators. This makes snack time a perfect time to practice math concepts since your students are naturally in the right mindset. Use these activities when serving children their favorite snacks— cubes of watermelon are likely more exciting than slices of apples. These activities can easily be done in small groups of around three to four students. The children in each group will make sure that the math is done properly and correctly each time.
Before starting: Make sure that the children wash their hands well since they’ll be touching each other’s food.
Math Snacktivities
Snacks by Weight
Using scales to divide snacks equally in small groups.
Materials
-Scales set (e.g., for food)
-marbles
-Snack food that comes in small pieces, such as cereal (puffed rice, crispy O’s, puffed corn balls)
-plates or napkins (for placing individual snacks)
-bowls: one bowl of snack food per group
Directions
- Show children a scale and invite them to share their knowledge or ideas about its name and purpose.
- Show the children a bowl of marbles. Explain that you need to divide the marbles into two equal groups without counting them. Ask: How can we use the scale to divide the marbles equally? Try out the children’s suggestions. Ask the children to tell you if the ideas work or not—and why not (if they know).
- Demonstrate dividing the marbles adding (or subtracting marbles) from the cups as necessary.
- Give each group a scale and a bowl containing the combined snack food for each group. Explain that each group is responsible for dividing up their snacks equally among themselves before they get to eat. The one rule is that everyone has to get the same amount.
- While they’re eating, ask each group to tell the class how they used the scales to divide the snacks.
Snacks by Length
Using measurement (or logic) to divide snacks equally in groups of three.
Materials
-Fruit by the Foot fruit roll snacks (one for each group of 3 children)
-child-safe scissors
-measurement cubes
-variety of equally sized, non-standard objects to use for measuring length (e.g. unsharpened pencils, block erasers, unused crayons, paper clips, etc.)
Directions
- Generate enthusiasm for today’s extra special snacktivity. Say something like, “We have a super yummy treat for snack today! Can anyone tell me what this is?” Then show the children the treat.
- Ask the children to tell you what’s special about this treat. How does it look, taste, etc.
- Open and unravel one of the fruit rolls. Explain that each group is going to get one Fruit by the Foot to share. Explain that you can use measurement to figure out how to divide the rolls equally—if you know how long it is, you can figure out how long a piece each person should get before cutting the rolls. Demonstrate measuring the Fruit by the Foot using measurement cubes. Count how many cubes long the fruit roll is. (The rolls are approximately 3 feet in length, but exact measurements will vary by individual rolls.) Then ask the children to tell you how you can use the cubes to determine equal shares.
- Explain that children can use any method they’d like to divide their group’s Fruit by the Foot, so long as everyone gets an equal share. Invite them to use non-standard measures, sharing the non-standard units you’ve collected.
- After the snacks are divided and the children have begun to eat, invite each group to describe the method they used to divide the snack equally.
Five-Frame Fruit Snacktivity
Dividing fruit into five-frames; early fraction concepts
Materials
-Grapes or summer fruit cut into cubes (e.g., melon)
-Bowls to hold fruit, one per group of 3–4 children
-Five- and Ten-Frame Mats, one per child. Alternatively, draw two 5-frames onto large paper plates
-Gallon-sized zipper bags (to cover Five-and Ten-Frame Mats, if using)
-Forks or spoons, one per child
Directions
- Explain that children are going to use five-frames to divide up today’s snack equally in each group. Show the children a five-frame. Ask them to share their ideas on how they could use the five-frames to divide the fruit.
- If using the Five- and Ten-Frame Mats, point out the ten frame side and explain that a ten-frame is really two five-frames, so they can use this side if they need more than one five-frame.
- Pass out the bowls of fruit and let the children get to work.
- Once each group divides the fruit equally and the children are eating, invite the groups to share their snack-dividing techniques. How many full five-frames did each child get in each group? How many partial five-frames? What did they do with unequal amounts of fruit?