Emor- Calculation Activities with Fractions & Unit Conversions

"From your settled places you shall bring bread of elevation, two loaves made of two tenth-ephahs, they shall be fine flour,  they shall be baked leavened; first fruits to Hashem." ~Vayikra 23:17

"You shall take fine flour and bake it into twelve loaves; each loaf shall be two tenth-ephahs. You shall place them in two stacks, six the stack, upon the pure Table, before Hashem." ~Vayikra 24:5-6 

In this week's parsha, we find two instances of descriptions of loaves of bread. In our first quote (23:17), there are two loaves of bread that were offered for the meal offering. In our second quote (24:5-6), there are twelve loaves of bread that were put in the Mishkan and replaced each week on Shabbat. 

If you read these passages, you'll notice that in both cases, the size of each loaf of bread was standard- each loaf was to be made using two tenth-ephahs of fine flour.

Some activity thoughts based on this information:
*Note that I have posted information related to relevant, applicable calculations in my previous posts on Parshat Beshalach (equivalency table for biblical measurements equivalent to an ephah, including a se'ah) and Parshat Shelach (unit conversion calculations from se'ah to modern measurements).

**For younger students, they could be given representative 1/10 ephah pieces (representative weights) to think about the quantities necessary for each question below. A more developmentally concrete class activity could also be done using a pre-measured modern day equivalency of 1/10 ephah and then having students measure out the amounts necessary for individual loaves and each scenario listed below. While the first activity offers students the opportunity to think about how to count multiple fractions of weighted measures, the second activity offers students the opportunity to visualize and think about how much flour would have actually gone into each recipe.

**For older students, they could work through the paper and pencil calculations. Students could then take their calculations and, using baking flour, compare how their measurements compare to some of their own challah recipes from home or collected as a class from a quick recipe search ahead of time. They can think about how many loaves of challah the parsha recipes would make based on the way their own families make challah. Are their challahs bigger or smaller than the estimated size of the loaves in the parsha?

Questions:
*If you were batch baking the bread for the meal offering, how much flour would be needed to make the two loaves?
*If you were batch baking the bread for the Mishkan, how much flour would be needed to make the two loaves?
*How much flour was needed for the combined loaves of each stack, the way they were divided for storing in the Mishkan each week?
*If you were baking today, how much flour would be needed for each loaf of bread?
*If you were baking today, how much flour would be needed to batch bake the bread for the meal offering?
*If you were baking today, how much flour would be needed to batch bake the bread for the Mishkan?
*If you were baking today, how much flour would be needed for the combined loaves of each stack as they were divided in the Mishkan?