Do you know how the ice cream cone was invented? In fact, it was invented by chance! In the summer of 1904, there was a big fair in the United States. It was called the St. Louis World’s Fair. Thousands of people visited the fair each day. One very hot day, fairgoers wanted to cool off. So they bought lots of ice cream from many vendors on the fairgrounds. After a while, some of the vendors ran out of dishes for their customers. As a result, the vendors had to find a new way to serve ice cream.
A man named Ernest Hamwi was selling thin waffles at a stand near one of the ice cream vendors. Ernest noticed the problem, so he offered to roll up a waffle and put a scoop of ice cream in it. The customers loved it. The idea spread quickly. Soon other ice cream vendors were using waffles to make ice cream cones, too. As a result of Ernest’s quick thinking, fairgoers got to enjoy ice cream cones for the first time!
Activities:
1. How was the ice cream cone invented? What do you learn from this story?
2. It was said that there were19,694,855 visitors at the St. Louis World’s Fair. Suppose one out of one thousand visitors each bought one ice cream cone. How many ice cream cones were sold?
3. Watch the video. Do you think who could be the true inventor of the ice cream cones? Discuss with your pals.
