Monday March 29

Welcome back from Spring Break!  I hope your time off was fun and relaxing.  I had a great time hanging out with my daughter.  She LOVES rocks, bark chips, dirt, pine cones, anything she can store in her little buckets.  She also loves stacking Legos!

Math Magic:
Is there math involved in calendars?  Well, leap year is one example.  It occurs every 4 years, except when that year is divisible by 100.  But years divisible by 400 are still leap.  Huh?  Well, for more math (and some magic) in calendars, check this out!

In Class:
How much sugar does soda have in it?  Well, take a look:


Today we're going to look at how much sugar is in certain foods.  Not all foods contain granulated sugar -- most contain high fructose corn syrup -- but we'll use sugar cubes to show the total amount of sugar, since it's a good visual aid.  To do this, we'll need to brush off our skills in dividing decimals.  Take a candy bar, for example.  A common full-size candy bar contains about 29 grams of sugar.  How many sugar cubes is this?  Well, a sugar cube weighs about 3.9 grams.  Let's do the math. . .

Did you know?
According to the USDA, teenagers your age should be eating between 37-45 grams of sugar per day.  That's TOTAL, including sugars that are hidden in certain foods.  One soda = 39 grams....  Just sayin'!

Assignment:
Choose 2 items from your cupboards or fridge at home.  Look at the nutrition label and figure out how many sugar cubes are in one serving of that item.  You can use the website: http://www.nutritiondata.com/ to help you.  You could also choose 1 item and calculate how much sugar is in one serving and in the entire item (that's still 2 calculations).  Kinda gives you an idea of what we eat, huh?