March 14 is Pi Day. It's not a spelling error for pie day. Pi is a Greek term denoting the mathematical portion 3.14 (or 22/7 in fraction form) used in geometry. That's why it's celebrated on 3/14. And Pi Day 2015 has math nerds especially geeked because it's pi to the 4th place value: 3.1415, reported WBEZ on March 13. Pi Day celebrates geometry and math. Take a bite out of math anxiety with these hands-on pizza "pie" math lessons for Pi Day. Teach shapes, numbers and colors with pizza. Cut differently-shaped and colored pizza toppings: mushrooms (white or brown discs or cylinders), onions (white cubes), sausage (brown spheres) pepperoni (red circles), colored peppers (cut in triangles) pineapple (yellow rectangles), cheese (cut as trapezoid, rhombus). Describe and discuss topping colors and shapes. Give each student a plate of pizza toppings and a small crust (or tortilla shell). Teach with food. Tell students to put five circles, two red things, three green rectangles, etc., on their pizza.
Teach sorting and classifying with pizza: Have students sort pizza toppings into categories. Tell them to place things that are orange in a pile. Sort by food group: dairy, vegetables and meat. Make a graph or pie chart of food groups
Teach adding and subtracting with pizza. Tell kids to put two of a certain topping on their pizza. Then add three more and count total. Begin with larger amounts and take away. Count to see how many are left. Teach skip counting adding by 2s, 3s, 5s and so on.
Teach fractions with pizza. Show students how to divide pizza in halves, thirds, quarters, eighths, etc. Demonstrate how two sixths equals one third, four eighths equals one half. Demonstrate how to reduce, find common denominators, add and subtract unlike fractions using pie shapes. Have each student divide his pizza into a different number of parts. Use clean string or yarn to temporarily section off pizza, so students can reuse. Or use a classroom set of pre-divided pizzas to demonstrate.
Teach multiplication and division with pizza. Divide pizzas into temporary sections or fractions as you did above. Pass out toppings. Show students how to count out one per topping per section until all are used. For example, divide pizza into eight sections and pass out 64 pepperoni pieces. For multiplication, do it the other way. Put equal number of toppings on each pizza section and count how many in all. Teach remainders by giving out uneven number of toppings and having kids divide.
Teach decimals with pizza. Explain that decimals are just fractions with base-ten denominators. The number of place values after the decimal point determines the denominator: one is tenths, two is hundredths, three is thousandths and so on. For this lesson, divide pizza into tenths. Teach basic fraction and decimal equivalencies.
Teach percent with pizzas. Demonstrate pizza as a pie graph. A whole pizza is 100 percent and any portion of it is a percent of 100. Half equals 50 percent; one quarter equals 25 percent and so on. Teach the relationship between fractions, decimals and percent (percents are fractions with denominators of 100. Decimals are percents without the decimal point: 37 percent is .37 or 37/100).
Teach ratios and proportions with pizza. Show students that proportions are actually fractions: A proportion of 3 to 10 is three parts out of ten parts total. Ratios are also comparisons. A classroom boy-girl ratio of 5:6 means five boys for every six girls. Use pizza toppings to teach proportions. Make pizzas with 3:10 pepperoni (three of every 10 toppings are pepperoni). For ratios, have students add a 2:3 ratio of green peppers to mushrooms.
When lessons are done let kids make pizzas to taste (removing what they don't like). Enjoy a Pi Day pizza party! Special education teachers make content approachable by teaching interactive, multisensory (smell, touch, taste) lessons. This is important for LD (learning disabled), ADHD (attention deficit with hyperactivity disorder) and CI (cognitively impaired) students. Indeed, hands-on lessons work better for all students. Activities with food are ideal. They're real-life, practical and fun! Plus, kids act up when they're hungry and behave better after they've eaten a healthy snack. Teaching with food makes content easier to visualize and improves receptivity to learning.
