SKIPPY® P.B. Bites Math Lessons

As a homeschooler, I'm always looking for new and different ways to teach the lessons that I have to teach. I'm also looking for ways to include food in everything because let's face it, food is fun, and should always be.  Using food like SKIPPY® P.B. Bites to teach simple math and graphing lessons provided an awesome opportunity. It also doesn't hurt that it's a food that I know that my houseful of littles love so much.  For those of you who don't know, SKIPPY® P.B. Bites are a new peanut butter snack that comes in two varieties: Double Peanut Butter and Pretzel. They are portable snacks for peanut butter lovers, or at least that's what I think. Packing 5 grams of protein per serving (about 10 pieces) and made with REAL peanut butter, it's a source for those littles that don't always particularly navigate towards meat. I have a little one that flip flops about this all of the time, and well, we roll with the punches. I think being in charge of their snacks in such a way also makes them feel pretty important, and keeps the snack time fiascos down to a minimum.  Anyhow, we decided to have some fun with this round snack and combine math and snack time into one. Or, rather, I did. I'm sure the kids can full well tell when they are having a lesson disguised as fun, but they keep their mouths shut and we're all happy. Today it was with math, and counting things, and graphing. We used the SKIPPY® P.B. Bites as markers, and then we ended with a great snack! I created this chart for you to use with your math units. The entire premise is to show how to tally with markers, and then have something satisfying to eat in the end. What a wonderful way to create a fun moment. The ladybug had fun running around our kitchen and counting the items I have listed above. She really had fun comparing the difference between items and then adding all of the items together. We worked on more than, less than, equal to, and totals. Being able to add a fun component to math all while fighting the midday hunger attacks gave me a bit of rest and relaxation too.