Geometry and Fractions for Breakfast

When Kate asked me this morning for “Spider Toast” I was stunned. What was I going to do with that request?

I pulled out some geometry and was able to convert a square into an eight legged spider!

It’s a great exercise for older kids to do for younger kids. It reinforces geometry and fractions, and everyone gets to have fun.

Start with a square – a piece of toast.

Unfortunately, bread doesn’t come in a variety of shapes. But with a knife, your’re armed to be creative with the geometry!

Toast your bread and spread cream cheese or peanut butter on it.

Use the steps below to cut out and assemble the Spider Toast.

Notice the geometry while making Spider Toast.

1. First, mentally divide the toast into thirds. Don’t cut anything yet.

2. Next, divide the toast into sevenths and cut out the shaded portions in the picture below.

In this step, you’re multiplying fractions. First we divided the bread into three pieces. Then we divided each of those into seven pieces to get 21 pieces. Each little rectangle is 1/21 of the bread.

This is a graphic representation of 1/3×1/7 = 1/21.

Make your Spider Toast face!

3. Assemble the cut-outs to be the face. If you center them just right, you’ll have 1/6 of the width of the bread left on both sides!

4. Smooth out the face so you can’t see the seams. Use blueberries for eyes and cut a crescent of cheese for the smile.

Go for it!

Make this morning nutritional, fun and educational! Add a glass of milk and a brief discussion of arachnids, and award yourself “Super Parent of the Day.”

And don’t forget to share how it went in the comments!