Pizza fractions

Understanding fractions through a pizza cutter approach

Fractions are an important concept in mathematics, and what better way to understand them than by slicing up a delicious pizza?

Through hands-on exploration, you will discover that fractions are not just numbers on a page but a real-life concept we encounter daily. By dividing our pizza into slices, we will learn how to represent fractions visually and understand their relationship to the whole pizza.

Activity
This activity is one of a set of free STEM resources developed to support the teaching of the primary national curriculum and the delivery of key topics within maths and science.

This fun maths game could be used as a starter or main activity to introduce fractions and can be developed further with other objects and a combination of halves and quarters.

Students could complete this activity either as individual learners or as table groupings. It introduces learners to fractions, i.e. a half and a quarter. The presentation slides highlight the national curriculum requirements, with the learners being able to understand what a half and quarter are by dividing a recognised shape.

Download our free, printable pizza fractions handout to begin. Actual pizzas could be used as an alternative to the handouts. Appropriate food hygiene and handling precautions would need to be applied.

The engineering context
Understanding fractions helps engineers solve many problems in a wide range of specialisms. For example, how to divide materials so people can carry equal loads.

Suggested learning outcomes
By the end of this activity, students will be able to understand that a half and quarter are ‘fractions of’ a whole object, they will recognise, find and name a half as one of two equal parts of a unit, and they will recognise, find and name a quarter as one of four equal parts of a unit. They will understand that fractions, halves and quarters can be combined as part of a whole unit.

Download the free activity sheet!
All activity sheets and supporting resources are free to download, and all the documents are fully editable so that you can tailor them to your students and your schools’ needs.

The activity sheet includes teacher notes, guidance, helpful web links, and links (where appropriate) to the national curriculum in the four devolved UK nations; England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

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