Friday, 19 July 2013

Problem solving pizzas!


 
Last week of holidays for me (and it's rained ALL week long!), so I've been busy planning for the term. I thought I'd share a little problem solving activity that I'm planning for one of the classes that I'm working with this term (I'm working as a Numeracy Coach for the rest of the year). It's a simple little activity to develop problem solving skills using a pizza theme. The class is a multi- year level class, and there's a pretty wide range of abilities, so I wanted to make an activity that could be easily differentiated, using the same material.
 
I'm going to give each student (or pair) a paper plate (which will be their pizza) and a set of pizza toppings (thanks Scrappin Doodles!). Basically, all kids are going to be working on a question relating to making pizzas, just at different levels.
 
 
 
Level 1:
Design a pizza for your friend/parent/teacher. How many pieces of topping are on there? What is there the most of? Least of?
 
Level 2:
I'm making pizza for me, my husband and my two kids. We each want pineapple pizza. Each will need pieces of pineapple, can you help me work out how much pineapple I will need?
 
Level 3:
Each pizza needs 5 pieces of pineapple and 6 pieces of tomato… how many pieces of topping altogether?
 
Level 4:
My daughter's two friends are going to join us for dinner. How many pieces of pineapple now? If a can has 15 pieces in it, how many cans will I need?
 
 
I asked my daughter to have a go at the first question - she really enjoyed it! Hopefully the class does too!
I'll let you know how it goes! :)
 
 

3 comments:

  1. I think I need to go and buy some pizza topping graphics now!! My preps would love this activity and I love how you have suggested some problems for varying levels.

    Casey
    Lifelong Learners in Prep

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Casey! I saw these pizza toppings on sale and had to use them :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I use to stop at your blog every day for something new

    Nilangi
    www.mysmatangels.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete