Dividing Cookies
Welcome to today’s challenge! Let’s see how good you are at sharing things equally.
Apple
Cookie
Number
One bright and breezy afternoon, Eli and I visited Professor Poki in his cosy garden. The professor had set up a table with colourful fruits, cookies, and a pitcher of lemonade. We were excited to see what kind of fun he had planned this time.
Professor Poki greeted us with his signature mismatched socks and a hat with a spinning propeller, as he laughed. “Welcome, Riri and Eli! Ready for another curious adventure?”
We exchanged curious glances. With Professor Poki, you never knew what would happen next, but it was always brilliant. As we sat down, Professor Poki smiled brightly. Professor Poki clapped his hands with excitement.
“Right then, apples and numbers on the menu today! Numbers you can count and numbers you can share” I tilted my head and asked, “Wait, what do apples have to do with numbers?” Professor Poki picked up an apple and juggled it with two others, making funny faces. “Natural numbers are for counting, like one apple, two apples, three apples.”
He placed the apples on the table. “But sometimes, we need to divide things. That’s where fractions come in.” I frowned, trying to understand. “But how do we divide an apple, Professor?” I asked.
The professor took out a comically large knife and winked. “Let me show you. If I cut this apple in half, we get two equal parts.” He sliced the apple and held up the two halves. “Each bit is called a half, and we write it as one over two.” Then he cut another apple into four pieces. “Now we have quarters—¼. Four equal pieces make a whole.”
Just then, Professor Poki’s phone made a funny honking sound. “Oh dear,” he said, looking a bit worried. “A group of neighbourhood kids is coming over soon.” I started to worry. We only had a few apples and cookies, and now there would be many more of us. I whispered to Eli, “How will we share everything?”
Eli looked worried, too. “We might not have enough.” Professor Poki noticed our concern. He pulled out his glasses, which had springs on the sides. “Don’t worry, my math marvels! We’ll use natural numbers and fractions to make sure everyone gets a fair share!”
We counted all the apples and cookies. There were twelve apples and nine cookies. “We have to divide these among nine children,” said the professor. He said, “First, let’s see how many whole apples each person gets.”
We counted and realised each child could get one apple. But we still had three apples left over. “What do we do with these?” I asked. Professor Poki grinned. “We cut them into fractions! Each apple can be divided into three equal parts, so everyone gets one-third of an apple.”
He cut the apples and handed out the pieces. Now, everyone would get one and one-third apples. “Let’s do the same with the cookies,” he added, pulling out a tiny calculator and pressing the buttons like he was playing a piano. We divided the nine cookies among the nine children, so everyone would get one cookie.
Once we’d sorted it all, we felt much better. “We did it, Professor Poki! We figured out how to make sure everyone got a fair share,” I said. Professor Poki nodded, his hat spinning. “Exactly, Riri! Numbers can be handy when things need to be shared out.”
As the sun began to set, we packed everything up. “Thanks for today, Professor,” Eli said. “That was actually really fun.” I nodded. “Yeah, now we know what to do when there isn’t quite enough for everyone.”
Professor Poki smiled warmly, his glasses sliding down his nose. “Remember, Riri and Eli—numbers and fractions pop up everywhere. They help us in everyday life, whether we’re sharing food, solving problems, or playing games.”