Maths in the kitchen: Pizza fractions – the great divide

Getting familiar with fractions just got a whole lot tastier with these cool cooking games for kids. Learn how to divide a pizza from a whole into halves and quarters. Yum!

What you need:

• 2 ingredient pizza dough recipe

Toppings:

• tomato paste
• shredded ham
• pineapple
• capsicum
• salami
• onion
• bacon
• cheese

Number of players:

Activity:

Step 1. Create the 2 ingredient pizza dough with the kids.

Step 2. Help the kids spread the tomato paste over the WHOLE pizza. Then, over HALF of the pizza, sprinkle the shredded ham.

Step 3. Next, over the other HALF of the pizza, have them sprinkle the cheese.

Step 4. Over a QUARTER of the pizza, get them to add some capsicum and on another QUARTER some pineapple.

Step 5. Continue adding toppings to either one HALF or one QUARTER of the pizza and discuss the fractions being used and how they overlap.

Step 6. Cook the pizza in the oven until golden crusts have formed. When slicing the pizza, have a chat about the fractions needed to feed the family. See notes for other great maths ideas to play with kids.

Notes:
Maths problems present themselves in many ways everyday. Examples with this activity are:

• If we have three children in the house and each want two slices of pizza, what fraction do we need to use to divide the pizza evenly?
• Sometimes sharing a pizza isn't as even as we'd like. For example, Mum and Dad would have two slices each and the four kids would all like one slice – how many slices do we need and which fraction will that be using?
• Breaking it down further for the older kids, we could say that Dad would like three slices, mum would like two while the three kids all would like one slice – how many slices would be needed and which fraction would that be?
• Remember to get the kids to slice up the pizza with the pizza wheel to finish the activity.