A few months back the kids and I made some of these adorable little clay sweet treats that I had seen in an issue of Family Fun Magazine many years ago. My kids have always loved playing store and I knew they would especially love running a pretend sweet treats shop! The kids had so much fun and did a terrific job making....
Caramel Apples and...
Lollipops and... 
even this adorable little Cupcake!
Of course the teacher in me saw an opportunity to interject some math skills practice into this fun idea and was thrilled to find that one of my favorite brand of toys had this great play money set!
My emphasis in teaching math to my kids has always been to build their ability to do quick mental math. There are so many different strategies and methods for manipulating numbers in your head in order to make quick mental calculations. For subtraction, one of the methods I have taught the kids is how to work your way from the smaller number back up to the larger number; in a sense, they learn to subtract by adding. Well, it just so happens that this is exactly the process done when a cashier is counting back change. It just made sense to teach the kids this quick mental subtraction method in this practical everyday way that they could relate to, become skilled at, and possibly use someday should they ever work as a cashier! Hooray for fun and meaningful ways to teach math!
Some what are some ways that you make math meaningful and fun for your students?
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