Materials: 4 x 6 index cards
Learning Objective: Multiplying and dividing fractions. This activity is a good way to practice computation with fractions.
Activity: Students create a “Halloween Recipe” for a witch's brew, using whatever yucky, imaginative ingredients they conjure up and lots of fractional amounts. Their recipe should serve 24 witches, to start.
For example:
• 6 3/4 cups swamp water
• 1 1/2 tsp. frog slime
• 2 cups chopped bat wing
• 1/2 tsp. lizard lips
• 1/4 cup werewolf blood
• 1 3/4 tsp. black cat whiskers
• 3 cups scorpion broth
• 2 1/2 tsp. caterpillar fuzz
• 1 chopped toadstool
• Pinch of mummy dust
Stir well and simmer for 3 days. Serves 24 hungry witches. Students create the recipes and exchange them.
For Enrichment:For more advanced or older students, have them modify the recipes to accommodate a different amount of servings. For example, they can calculate how much of each ingredient they would need to change the recipe to feed 12, 18, 36, or 48 witches--depending on the teacher’s instructions. Teacher can specify multiplication or division or leave it to students to figure the easiest way.
For Younger Students: If your students are not to the level of working with fractions, you could modify this lesson and have them write recipes with whole numbers. Then they could take it a step further by adjusting the recipe for more people through addition or multiplication.
Modification: If you are short on time and want to streamline this lesson, you can come up with one standardized recipe beforehand. Then the students can practice modifying the size of the recipe from there, as described above.
Have fun with the concept of this lesson plan and make it work for you and your students.
