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! :)