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Thirty Guests and a Pancake Recipe for Six

5th grade nonfiction passage about scaling a recipe with ratios: 211 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

5th grade nonfiction scaling a recipe with ratios 211 words

Thirty Guests and a Pancake Recipe for Six

Imagine you want to make pancakes for thirty guests, but your recipe serves only six. You cannot just guess. You need a ratio, which is a way to compare two amounts. Here the ratio is thirty guests to six servings. If you divide 30 by 6, you get 5. That means you need to make the recipe five times.

Now look at the ingredients list. The recipe for six calls for 2 cups of flour, 3 eggs, 1 teaspoon of salt, and half a cup of milk for each cup of flour. To scale it up, multiply every amount by 5. You will need 10 cups of flour, 15 eggs, and 5 teaspoons of salt. The ratio between the ingredients stays the same, so the pancakes should taste the same, too.

A cook must multiply every ingredient. If you change only the flour, the batter will come out too thick or too thin. Math keeps the whole recipe in balance.

Some things do not simply multiply, however. A huge batch will not fit in one small pan. You would cook it in several rounds or use more pans. The cooking time for each pancake stays about the same, too, because a pancake is still the same size. A smart cook uses math for the amounts and common sense for the rest.

Questions

  1. How many times must the recipe be made to feed thirty guests? in the text

  2. What is a ratio? in the text

  3. How many eggs are needed for thirty guests? in the text

  4. What happens if you change only the amount of flour? in the text

  5. Why should every ingredient be multiplied by the same number? think about it

  6. Why does the cooking time for each pancake stay about the same? think about it

Words to know

ratio
a way to compare two amounts
ingredient
one of the foods that go into a recipe
scale
to make bigger or smaller by the same amount
batter
a runny mix of flour, milk, and eggs for cooking
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One passage, three levels

The same topic and facts written three ways, so a mixed class can read and talk about one text. Each group’s sheet shows only a shape; the key says which is which.

● Easier · 184 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 2.4

Say you want to make pancakes for thirty guests. Your recipe serves only six. You cannot just guess. You need a ratio. A ratio compares two amounts. Here it is thirty guests to six servings. Divide 30 by 6 and you get 5. So you must make the recipe five times.

Now look at the ingredients. The recipe for six needs 2 cups of flour, 3 eggs, and 1 teaspoon of salt. To make more, multiply every amount by 5. You will need 10 cups of flour, 15 eggs, and 5 teaspoons of salt. The ratio between the ingredients stays the same. So the pancakes should taste the same, too.

A cook must multiply every ingredient. If you change only the flour, the batter will be too thick or too thin. Math keeps the recipe in balance.

Some things do not just multiply. A huge batch will not fit in one small pan. You would cook in many rounds or use more pans. The cooking time for each pancake stays about the same. A pancake is still the same size. A smart cook uses math for the amounts and common sense for the rest.

▲ This passage · 211 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 3.7

Imagine you want to make pancakes for thirty guests, but your recipe serves only six. You cannot just guess. You need a ratio, which is a way to compare two amounts. Here the ratio is thirty guests to six servings. If you divide 30 by 6, you get 5. That means you need to make the recipe five times.

Now look at the ingredients list. The recipe for six calls for 2 cups of flour, 3 eggs, 1 teaspoon of salt, and half a cup of milk for each cup of flour. To scale it up, multiply every amount by 5. You will need 10 cups of flour, 15 eggs, and 5 teaspoons of salt. The ratio between the ingredients stays the same, so the pancakes should taste the same, too.

A cook must multiply every ingredient. If you change only the flour, the batter will come out too thick or too thin. Math keeps the whole recipe in balance.

Some things do not simply multiply, however. A huge batch will not fit in one small pan. You would cook it in several rounds or use more pans. The cooking time for each pancake stays about the same, too, because a pancake is still the same size. A smart cook uses math for the amounts and common sense for the rest.

■ Harder · 223 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 7

Imagine that you intend to make pancakes for thirty guests, but your recipe serves only six people. Guessing will not work, because you need a ratio, which is a way of comparing two amounts. In this case the ratio is thirty guests to six servings. When you divide 30 by 6, you get 5, which means you must prepare the recipe five times over.

Next, examine the list of ingredients. The recipe for six calls for 2 cups of flour, 3 eggs, and 1 teaspoon of salt. To scale it upward, you multiply every single amount by 5. You will therefore need 10 cups of flour, 15 eggs, and 5 teaspoons of salt. Because the ratio between the ingredients remains unchanged, the pancakes should taste exactly the same as the original.

A careful cook must multiply every ingredient. If you were to alter only the flour, the batter would turn out far too thick or far too thin. Math keeps the entire recipe in proper balance.

Some aspects of cooking, however, do not simply multiply. An enormous batch of batter cannot fit into one small pan, so you would cook it in several rounds or use additional pans. The cooking time for each pancake also remains about the same, because every pancake is still the same size. A sensible cook relies on math for the amounts and on common sense for everything else.

Download as one PDF

How to use it

  1. Press Read it big (or B) to put the text on the projector, or Full screen (F) to fill the whole screen.
  2. Ask the questions one at a time and use Show answer when the class has decided. A shows or hides every answer.
  3. Print student copy for the class, or Print with answers for yourself.

Ideas for class

  • Before reading, put ratio, ingredient, scale and batter on the board with their meanings from the Words to know section and have students predict what the text will be about.
  • Read it aloud once while students follow along, then have them reread it alone or with a partner. At a calm 100 words a minute it takes about 2 minutes to read aloud.
  • Use the Read it big button (or B) to put the text on the projector, and Show answer on one question at a time so the class commits to an answer first.
  • Question 5 asks the reader to infer. Ask students to point to the words in the passage that led them to their answer.
  • Ask students to write one question the passage did not answer, then look for the answer in a book or on a classroom screen.
  • Print the student copy for independent work and keep the answer-key copy for yourself.

Related

Questions

What reading level is "Thirty Guests and a Pancake Recipe for Six"?

It was written for 5th grade. It has 211 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 3.7. That is a formula's estimate from sentence length and syllables, and it is not a Lexile or a guided reading level, so check it against your students.

What do the questions ask?

There are six. 4 ask for something the text says directly and 2 ask the reader to work something out from clues. Each has an answer in the key, and the answers are written as a teacher would accept them, not as the only possible wording.

How long does it take to read?

About 2 minutes read aloud at 100 words a minute. For a one-minute fluency check, paste it into the fluency timer and use the word count.

Can I print it?

Yes. Print student copy gives the passage, the questions with lines to write on, and the word meanings. Print with answers gives the same page with the answers filled in. Both are made in your browser.

Is this passage from a published book?

No. It was written for Peabody Teach, so there is no book to buy and no login to read it.

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