Today was our first day of Distance Learning from our school. Though I am grateful for all of the lessons now being planned out and having some awesome challenges to engage in (Shout Out to Coach SMITH and Mrs. NEAL!!!!), it messed up the routine we had been rolling with. I spent so much time navigating the different sites and trouble shooting that I didn’t have time to prep the new colored strips I needed to start thirds, sixths and ninths for the Fraction Kit.

I honestly thought Chris wouldn’t ask about the math, as he had so much to do for his other classes. (I was ready to ditch out on the fractions today.) But he asked at lunch, When are we having our fraction time, Mom? How can you say no to that?!!! (Well, okay lots of us can, but anyone who knows me knows I can’t. Ask my good friend who had to wait for me to write on receipt paper math tutorial links for the cashier at Total Wine the other day!)

Fortunately, a good friend had posted on Facebook a recipe for making salt-dough ornaments. See below for the recipe, but what I loved about it was there are only 3 ingredients (And I had them all!!!!) and the amounts were cups and halves. Perfect!

1. I pulled out all of my measuring cups and asked Chris how he would name them. He called the full circle 1 whole. He took the others and rotated them within the cup to figure out how many fit inside. Pretty similar to the Fraction Kit, but with circles. We named them verbally and I asked him to find the fourth. We put the rest away.
2. I asked him to measure 1 cup of flour with the 1/4. How many fourths would you need to make a whole cup? 4 How do you know? Because it takes four of them to make a fourth. (He rotated the 1/4 in the air to show the whole circle.) 1-fourth, 2-fourths, 3-fourths, one-whole.
3. We needed to measure 1/2 cup of salt. How can you use the 1-fourth to find 1-half? Well, since 4 of them made a whole, I need only 2.
4. We needed to measure 1/2 cup of water. I didn’t bother asking; I knew he got the gist of it.

The recipe is super easy to make and fun to create different ornaments to paint and share with friends during this isolation time. I am having Chris write a letter with each to send out next week so we can get some Pen-Pal action going!

Note: We did not put parchment paper down the first time we rolled out the dough and it was a huge mistake! Place parchment or wax paper down and sprinkle some flour before rolling out the dough.