Mealtime activities - Breakfast

Mealtime activities - Maths at breakfast  

Want to make mealtimes more interesting and interactive for your preschooler? Here’s a few ideas for you to develop your child’s numeracy skills whilst having a good time at breakfast.  

Firstly – toast shapes. If toast is

on the menu, instead of just cutting it up into the same shapes every day, use this opportunity to explore different shapes with your child. Show them that one square piece of bread can be left whole, cut into two big rectangles, four squares, two big triangles, four small triangles, eight even smaller triangles, five skinny rectangles/ fingers… and the list goes on. Get your child to count the number of sides on the triangle, on the square and so on. This way your child will discover that the triangle has three sides and so on. Do different shapes every day – make it a surprise!  

Secondly, try fruit fractions. Sit down at the table with your child when you cut up his/ her fruit. Show them that one whole pear can be cut into two equal halves. Show them that if you cut up the apple into two uneven bits, then they aren’t halves. With soft fruits like bananas, let your child cut them up into halves, thirds, quarters etc. The catch (from a practical point of view) is to not get carried away and end up with eight bananas, six pears and three apples all cut up and a preschooler who doesn’t want to eat any more!  

Thirdly, look at all of the food and items on the table, and compare them. Use world like bigger, smaller, rounder, longer, colder, softer et cetera. Say things like ‘the cup is smaller than the placemat’, ‘the bowl is taller than the plate’. After a while, you might start comparing things. For example, ‘the spoon is longer than the cup, but the cup is rounder than the spoon’ or ‘the metal spoon is colder than the toast but warmer than the milk from the fridge’. Comparing and ordering is a very important mathematical skill. Your child will probably think back to these ‘lessons’ with you when talking about these things when s/he gets to school – and will already have started to develop an understanding of the concept.  

If mornings in your household are anything like mornings in ours, then you don’t have time to sit down and explore mathematical ideas and experiment, then just pick a time of day when you can fit it in. What about breakfast on the weekends or holidays, or morning/ afternoon tea, or just whenever you get the chance.

So, happy mealtime maths activities – let me know how you go. Stay tuned – next on the menu is lunch!