Five Minute Math: Tasty Totals, Fun Family Math with Snacks

Many of us have a negative connotation of the dreaded word/ story problem, but did you know that story problems are all around us? Anytime you do math with a purpose, you are ‘writing’ and solving a story problem! What’s more, if we can help our children see the prevalence of math in the real world, and to practice real world story problems, the more comfortable they will become.

In this week’s five minute math, you and your family can create your own story problems… with snacks!

Here’s how:

• Choose a snack with many individual pieces, for example a bowl of blueberries or a cup of goldfish crackers.
• Start by giving your child some snack on the plate. Ask them, “How many [snack name] do you have?”
• Next, give them some more of the snack (for example, six more berries) and say- “I’ll give you six more. How many do you have now?”
• After your child has answered, retell the story- “You had five blueberries. Then, I have you six more. Now you have six blueberries!”

You can repeat this story telling process with different quantities of snack and mix it up with different operations. For example, you can have your child subtract (“You had twelve berries and you ate two… now you have ten left!), multiply (“You had five berries, then I gave you two more groups of five. Now, you have three groups of five berries- that’s fifteen berries in total!) and divide (“I gave you twelve berries. Then, you shared them evenly with your brother and I. Now, we each have four berries.)

For extra fun, let your child create their own snack-time story!

If you tried this activity, I’d love to know how it went. Leave a comment below, and please follow us on Facebook or Instagram for more great math tips and updates!