Making Pizza = Learning Fractions 

Every year Liza likes to teach a lesson that helps students practice their fractions by making pizza together. This year, Liza taught that lesson with the grade 2/3's... but it looked a bit different. It happened virtually.  

Liza explains: "The kids were asked to prepare their ingredients and write recipes (procedural writing) for their pizzas using fractions throughout the recipe. When we met online for a Google Meet, we walked through kitchen safety, hygiene while cooking, and fractions in relation to pizza!" 

Each student had their own crust and started with a sauce. Liza then held up different fractions for the students to read and the students had to add ingredients to their pizza to cover the fraction that was shown. When the students saw that 3/3 of their pizza needed to be covered in sauce, they made sure it was entirely covered. They used 4-5 different ingredients to make their pizza, covering a different fraction of their pizza with each ingredient. The class also spent some time chatting about their week and catching up as the pizzas baked in the oven. 

Once the pizzas came out (and cooled!) the kids were tasked with cutting their pizzas into EQUAL parts. They shared what fraction of the pizza they were going to eat, and then dug in! 

It was fun. It was delicious. It was real! It's an amazing feeling to take the things you learn in school and see how they apply in the real world.  

Memorable quote: "Can you take a picture of your pizza? Wait, if it's still in the oven, don't put your phone in the oven to take a picture - wait until the pizza comes out!"

Date Posted: June 13, 2020

Tags: experiential learning, Family & community-centred school environment, Innovative approaches to teaching and learning, Integrated curriculum, math, Student-directed learning