Teaching Math & Patterns with Pizza

Objective:

Teaching the concept of fractions

Time needed:

  • 45 minutes

Age of students:

  • 8-10 years old

Groups size:

  • According to the size of the class

Materials needed:

  • Different sized paper plates, markers/felt pens or colouring pencils/crayons

Description of the tool:

  • Children watch the video Peg + Cat The Pizza
    Problem by Jennifer Oxley
    https://youtu.be/y2hedXKaXD8
  •  Discuss with them the different pizza toppings which Pete and his friend put on their pizza.
  • What do they notice about the shape of the pizza?
  • Divide the class in small groups and give each group a large paper plate each. Tell them that now it is their turn to make pizza.
  • Ask them to pretend this is their pizza base, so they should colour it in red.
  • Give them 4 small paper plates each and ask them to colour one orange, one pink, one red and one green.
  • Ask them to cut the pink plate in half, the red one in 4 pieces, the orange one in 3 pieces and the green one in 8 pieces.
    Therefore – Pink = 1/2
  • Red = 1/4 
  • Orange = 1/3 
  • Green = 1/8
  • Discuss with them what they mean

In groups children experiment with mixing and matching the plates. Imagine these are the ingredients they will be putting on their pizza.

  • Therefore one group might have ¼ of the red
  • plate and ½ of the pink plate on the pizza
    base. The paper plates symbolising pizza
    ingredients.
  • Red could be peperoni or tomatoes, pink could be
    sausages or ham, yellow could be cheese and green could be peas.
  • Allow the children to experiment with the different fractions and equivalencies.

As a conclusion to the lesson, children could watch the youtube video Pete the cat and the perfect pizza. This could be followed by a comprehension test.
https://youtu.be/yrVrFBGi43w

Ask the children to write an exit note and stick it
on the board.
One question I have today is ___________.
OR
Today I learnt that ___________________.