Teaching mathematics through cooking: Making avocado ice cream

Friday 23rd of November 2018

When educators create opportunities for mathematical engagement in day to day activities, then children will experience mathematics not just as a skill or a tool, but a way of thinking and being in the world.

Numeracy is the ability to apply maths concepts in all areas of life – and there are endless ways that children can do this. Cooking can help children learn and practice basic math concepts and build language skills. It provides opportunities for them to learn mathematical vocabulary. How better to learn phrases like 'more than' or 'less than' than by weighing out ingredients. Children who can cook develop confidence and self-assurance, and a greater understanding of the world in a range of ways.  

Here, we believe that learning is something that should be shared as a group. Having ‘math talks’ and linking these to activities, broadens our children’s knowledge of mathematics and heightens their fluidity with numbers. This ‘recipe’ gives children a taste for what maths activities can do for our children's early maths education. Engagement is the main ingredient. 

Today we are using our cooking lesson as a concrete example of how maths is used in everyday life and to build on our children’s number sense. It’s being able to see what numbers are, how they work and what we can do with them. With this solid foundation in number sense, our children will then be able to move onto more complicated equations later on in their math development.  

Our lesson today looks at making ice-cream with avocados. Together with the children, we looked at the ingredients list and prepared our food to then place into the blender. Our ingredients included:

+ Two cans of sweetened condensed milk

+ Four large/extra large ripe avocados, peeled and seed removed

+ 600g of cold heavy thick cream 

We set up our stand mixer and added the chopped up avocados, the cans of of condensed milk and a few dashes of cold heavy cream. The children could hone basic math skills by doing something as simple as counting spoonfuls of condensed milk as it was placed into the blender. We asked what comes first, second, and third or counted together as we spooned the ingredients into a bowl. We read the recipe together, introducing new words to our children's vocabulary and promoting spoken maths.

We find that following steps in the recipe can work on listening skills. We whipped the ingredients up on high speed until combined. We poured the mixture into a baking pan and then into the freezer. The dessert was a success and it was perfect for children who prefer less sweet desserts. From this activity we could see that the math involved in cooking is applicable and concrete and leads to a positive association to mathematics.