Cutting Up a Pineapple In 5 Steps (With Geometry)

A big shout out to @trianglemancsd whose blog, Talking Math With Your Kids, and his Which One Doesn't Belong is the inspiration for this blog post.

I think it's pretty cool that my 5 year old likes getting involved in the kitchen, so last week it wasn't a big surprise that she pulled out her ducky stool to see how I was going to cut up a pineapple.

Step 1: cut off the top and bottom

Me: What shapes did I make?

Layne: Circles.

Step 2: cut off the skin

Me: What shape do you see now?

Layne: ...a hexagon?

Me: Close, how many sides does it have?

Layne: Eight.

Me: What kind of animal has eight legs?

Layne: An octopus.

Me: Yeah, so what do you think the name of this 8 sided shape might be?

Layne: Octogon.

Step 3: cut into 8 segments

Me: Now what did we make?

Layne: Triangles!

Step 4: Cut the core off of each segement

Layne: Trapezoid!

(I don't even have to prompt for for this one)

Step 5: cut into bite size pieces and eat