Apple juice and apple cider are both yummy drinks. How are they different? Apple juice has pulp filtered out, then it gets cooked in a special way (“pasteurized”). But apple cider is just raw juice right from the fruit. This fun farm gadget shows it’s easy to make cider. You drop apples into the black funnel, then crank the big handle to slice up the apples. The apple pieces fall into the barrel below. Then that screw-shaped pipe presses down on the barrel’s lid, squeezing juice through cloth. Pour the juice, and you’re done! 40-50 apples will make one gallon of cider…and horses happily eat the leftover mush.
Wee ones: If you crush red, green, and yellow apples, how many colors is that?
Little kids: If you’re holding 8 apples and count down from 8 as you toss them in, what numbers do you say? Bonus: How many more apples would you need to crush a total of 10?
Big kids: If 50 apples make 1 gallon (16 cups) of cider to feed 16 people, how many people can you serve cider from 100 apples? Bonus: If those 100 apples each weigh 1/2 pound, how much does that barrelful of apples weigh compared to you?
Answers:
Wee ones: 3 colors.
Little kids: 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Bonus: 2 more apples.
Big kids: 32 people, since it’s twice as many apples. Bonus: Different for everyone…subtract 50 from your weight in pounds, or subtract your weight from 50.
Laura Bilodeau Overdeck is founder and president of Bedtime Math Foundation. Her goal is to make math as playful for kids as it was for her when she was a child. Her mom had Laura baking before she could walk, and her dad had her using power tools at a very unsafe age, measuring lengths, widths and angles in the process. Armed with this early love of numbers, Laura went on to get a BA in astrophysics from Princeton University, and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business; she continues to star-gaze today. Laura’s other interests include her three lively children, chocolate, extreme vehicles, and Lego Mindstorms.