Today is Pancake Day!
Pancake Day is also known as “Shrove Tuesday” among some religions. It is the day before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Lent is the 40 days of penance, prayer, and fasting that precedes Easter. Traditionally, people abstained from eating eggs and fats during Lent, and pancakes were the perfect way of using up those ingredients before Lent began. Pancake Day is also known as “Mardi Gras” which is French for “Fat Tuesday.”
I thought it would be fun to celebrate with some Pancake Math for a variety of ages and abilities.
Recommended Websites:
Preschool Pancake Math:
Pancake Geometry:
At this site you will find a suggestion for how to use pancakes to teach geometric shapes to little ones.
Pancake Curriculum!
Find all kinds of pancake-themed activities and lessons that teach while they entertain!
Elementary Grades Pancake Math:
AuntJemima.com
At the Aunt Jemima website you can scroll down to the title “Pancake Math” to find out how to use information on a pancake mix box to teach your kids about multiplication, addition, measurement, and every other principle of math all while they’re enjoying a pancake breakfast.
Pancake (& Pumpkin) Recipe Math
Practice math skills while baking some delicious fat-free pumpkin pancakes for Grandma! :) The recipe link in this activity doesn’t work, but here’s a replacement (just use the rest of the egg for something else): Pumpkin Pancake recipe.
Upper Elementary Grades and Beyond:
Flipping Pancakes Math
At this website you’ll see a number of “pancakes” all of different sizes, stacked on top of each other. Your job is to arrange the pancakes according to their size with the biggest at the bottom. Click a pancake and your flipper “goes under that pancake” and flips the whole stack above the flipper.
Pancake Sorting
This pancake sorting problem asks how many “prefix reversals” are sufficient to sort an arbitrary stack of pancakes.
Three Pancakes
At this site you can use a simulation device to gain insight to this math problem about probability: You have a hat in which there are three pancakes: One is golden on both sides, one is brown on both sides, and one is golden on one side and brown on the other. You withdraw one pancake, look at one side, and see that it is brown. What is the probability that the other side is brown?
Just For Fun!
Is the state of Kansas as flat as a pancake? Go to the website of Improbable Research and find out how to combine math and science to find the answer! http://tinyurl.com/jodx
Enjoy!
