Baking Our Favourite Recipes with Fractions

Before the lesson starts, ask your students to bring in recipes from cookbooks, family recipes, or on the back of food packages. You will need some of these recipes for this lesson. 

In this lesson, students expand their knowledge of fractions by looking at recipes that they bring from home. Students develop skills to read and compare fractions, while also gaining an understanding of the relationship between fractions and ratios, and practicing adding and multiplying fractions. 

Introduction: 

• Have a full-class discussion around favourite recipes. People have favourite recipes for many reasons: 
  • Some recipes are easy to make and taste good. 
  • Some recipes are hard to make and offer us a challenge. 
  • Some recipes remind us of our culture and help us connect with our past.
  • Some recipes are more fun when made with others and allow us to spend time with family and friends. 
• Tell students that many kinds of baked goods connect us to families, holidays, and traditions passed down through generations. We can use recipes to make pierogis, Belgian waffles, challah, Montreal style bagels, chebakia, kahk, and many more. 
• Project some favourite recipes on the board. You can ask your students to have their families write out their favourite recipes or bring in a recipe they like from a cookbook or recipe website. 
• Using one of these recipes, ask your students which ingredient is used the most. Remind them to pay attention to the units. 
  • You can talk about the relationship between ratios and fractions here – how much flour is there related to baking powder? What about flour to salt? These ratios are key to baking and cooking. 
  • Start with flour, as most recipes have flour as their main ingredient. Then look for water or other liquids, as those tend to be second. How much flour is there compared to water? 3 cups for every 1 cup of water?

Lesson (25 minutes): 

• Place students in small groups and give them a set of recipes. They will work together to answer some questions about the recipe using their fraction knowledge. These questions can include: 
  • How many cups, tablespoons, and teaspoons are there when recipes are combined? Students will need to know how to add fractions with different denominators to do this. 
  • Which ingredient is used the most? Which is used the least? How do you know? Is it the same in each recipe?
  • What is the difference between the amount of flour used in one recipe compared to the other? 
  • How many batches of each recipe could they make with 10 cups of flour before they run out? 
• You can also give students time to look through cookbooks or recipe websites for different recipes. Students should find a recipe, identify the fractions involved, and then compare their recipe to other recipes.
  • What commonalities do they notice between the fractions in the recipes? 
  • Is the amount in each batch the same? Does it differ between recipes, and if so, why do they think so?
  • What part of the world does this recipe come from? 
  • Does the recipe have any amounts that are not given in fractions or whole numbers, like ‘a pinch of salt?’

Conclusion (10 minutes): 

• Gather students and ask them to share what they found about their recipes. Students can share about:
  • Findings and thoughts about the relationships between fractions in different ingredients
  • Comparing fractions in different recipes 
  • The history of their baked good and recipe 
• Ask your students to look out for interesting recipes and share them with the class in the future