Teaching Math with Baking

A great way to teach math through cooking is a good old fashioned chocolate chip cookie recipe. My kids love chocolate chip cookies, and yes, they love eating them with a glass of milk, like most children around the world.

First, like any good baker, we start with the measurements of 1 cup of flour into the bowl. We talk about the difference in all our measuring cups: ½ C, 1/3 C, and a ¼ C, and the differences in teaspoons too. You can ask them prompt questions such as “How do you know that four ¼ cups equals 1 cup?"

We can introduce the concepts around doubling and halving also. Prompt kids to think about making a double batch of cookies. If the recipe makes 12 cookies, how many cookies would it make if you doubled the recipe? Would you need to make 2 separate batches or could you combine all the ingredients into one bowl? If you need to double the recipe, do you need to double the cooking temperature? Why or why not?

Once the cookies are ready to go into the oven, let the children count how many cookies they are going to bake. Next, put the timer on (another teaching opportunity) and wait for the cookies to bake. As you can see there are endless opportunities for teaching basic math whenever you cook with your kids. Teaching math in a tactile and delicious way is a great way for them to remember what they learn (and eat)!