Ice Cream Party Math (a SMMARTidea)

Hello! I’m Lisa and I share learning activities for kids on my SMMARTideas blog (Science, Math, Music, Art, Reading and Time-out for Tidbits). I’m excited to share this SMMART Math learning activity with Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational readers!

Ice cream can be a great motivator for your child to demonstrate his/her math skills.  You’ll need some ice cream and little candies, marshmallows, chocolate chips … whatever you have in your pantry.

Display all the fixins in fun glasses and jars out on the table. Then, BRING OUT THE ICE CREAM!

Okay, now for the math. Have your kiddos answer math questions to earn candies and add-ins.

"4 + 6 = the number of chocolate chips you can add into your ice cream."
"50% of 12 is the number of gummy bears you can add to your ice cream."
"Count 7 lemonheads and put them into your ice cream ... good counting!"

Put the add-ins right into a large ceramic bowl and mix it up with two large spoons, then dish into waffle cones. 

I suppose you could even touch on a little geometry ... the cone shape of the ice cream cone, sphere shape of the malted milk balls, or oval jellybeans.

Cool summer fun!

- Lisa at SMMARTideas