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Trail Mix Math Lesson Plan for Elementary Students (Adaptable to K-6)

Use Trail Mix to Teach Your Students How to Count, Classify, Graph, and More

By Beth Lewis, About.com

TRAIL MIX MATH
Submitted by Angie Honda

Required Materials - A bag of trail mix snacks is required. The trail mix needs to have a variety of ingredients, such as peanuts, pretzels, chocolate chips, dried fruit, etc.

Give each student a small portion of trail mix in little baggies or on a paper towel. Guide the students in classifying the trail mix in the following mathematical ways:

  • Each like ingredient should be grouped together and counted. The students can make note of the data on a form that you supply.
  • Next, have the students graph the individual trail mix components by amounts, in a pie chart or or bar graph.
  • Take the math lesson a step further and have your students express the ingredient amounts as fractions of the whole.
Additionally, nutrition and food pyramid lessons can be derived from the lesson, then the materials can be eaten!

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