Pizzas are great for learning about fractions in mathematics.
Using basic pizzas, cut them up into halves, quarters etc depending on the fractions being taught. You can use them very effectively to do simple fractions or to do mixed or improper fractions. Visually the children can easily identify that seven quarters make one whole and three quarters. They are also very good for doing addition and subtraction of fractions too and if you’re feeling really brave division of fractions where you might have four pizzas divided into sixths so twenty four sixths and share these between six people they’d have four sixths (or maybe visually two thirds) of a pizza each. This makes maths (and the tricky and potentially dull topic of fractions) exciting and motivational for the children and will guarantee that the lesson, and hopefully its objectives, will stay in their minds.
They can also be used in a shape and data extension by asking the children to consider why pizzas are round.
Dave Lewis
Portsmouth High School Junior Dept
I definitely like the idea of helping the students to visually understand a concept, especially fractions. Teachers need to remember how beneficial concrete materials can be for learning, no matter how old the students are.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea, actually this is what I did while teaching grade 4 fractions. We had at school also a pizza model that was really helpful in teaching fractions in addition to fraction flashcards.
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