Lesson Plan

Instructor: Angie McInerney

Grade Level: 3rd
Lesson Title: Fraction Pizzas
Time Needed: 50 Minutes

Lesson Source: Idaho State Standard Number and Operations – Fractions 3.NF.1

Concepts:
A pizza can represent a whole and when divided into slices can represent that whole
object being broken into a certain number of equal parts.

Objectives:

Students will be able to:

 Learn the concept of whole objects being broken into a certain number of equal
parts.
 Learn equal parts of a whole can be written as a fraction.
 Understand that a fraction represents one or more equal parts out of the total
number of parts.
 Understand that a fraction represents multiple equal parts out of the total number
of parts

Idaho State Standards:

Number and Operations—Fractions 3.NF.1

Develop understanding of fractions as numbers.

Understand a fraction 1/b as the quantity formed by 1 part when a whole is partitioned
into b equal parts; understand a fraction a/b as the quantity formed by a parts of size
1/b.
Materials List and Advanced Preparations:
Students assigned to working groups
Pre-made pizza base for each group
Construction Paper
Glue Sticks
Scissors
Colored Markers
Play Money – Dollars and Quarters

Supplementary Materials
Introductory Fraction Video or Worksheet
Pizza “Recipe” for each group
Worksheet to collect fraction data from each groups pizza
Engagement
What the Teacher Will Do
Set up the game hang-man
on the board with the word
“PIZZA” and complete
game with students.
Draw a large circle on the
board and quickly draw on
toppings to represent a
pizza with half cheese and
half pepperoni.
Divide circle on board in
half.
Exploration
What the Teacher Will Do
Present interactive video
“Let’s learn fractions”
Say, “Today we are going
to learn about fractions by
making a fraction pizza.”
Have students join their
pre-assigned groups at one
of the stations set up for
project.
Teacher will explain that
they are assigned to a
group and they will be
going to a station to follow
a “recipe” to make their
own pizza.
Monitor the groups.
When students are done
with project, have them
stay in groups.
Teacher will pick from
different student groups to
Probing/Eliciting
Questions
Once hang-man is solved,
teacher will ask, “Who likes
pizza?”
Teacher will ask, “Have you
ever ordered a pizza with
half cheese and half
pepperoni?”
Teacher will ask, “How
many parts have we
divided this pizza into?”
Probing/Eliciting
Questions
Teacher will ask, “What is a
fraction?”
Ask “Does anybody have
any questions?”
Ask “Who would like to
share a part of their pizza
recipe with the class?”
Ask “First, let’s talk about
how many pieces our
Time: 5 Minutes
Student Responses and
Misconceptions
Students will give various
responses on the hang-
man game and once
complete, be encouraged
to share their favorite pizza
toppings.
Students will respond with
“yes” or “no”
Students will give various
responses.
Time: 25 Minutes
Student Responses and
Misconceptions
Students will give various
answers.
Have students ask any
questions they have about
completing the project.
Students will volunteer.
Students will answer 8.
answer discussion whole pizza was cut into.
questions. who can tell me?”
Continue discussion, ask Ask “So if group 2 had 3 Students will answer. Help
for volunteers to write slices of pizza with olives direct their conclusion if
answers on the board. on it, how would we write necessary.
that in a fraction?”
Lead students to correct Ask “Who remembers from Students will respond.
answer if necessary and the video what the various
have student volunteer parts of the fraction are
write 3/8 on the board. called?”
Teacher will write the Ask “What group has 2 Students will respond.
words Numerator and slices of pizza with
Denominator on the board. pepperoni?”
Explain that the top
number, or Numerator
represents the individual
slices of pizza, and that the
Denominator, or bottom
number shows the number
of parts in the whole.
Teacher will continue
asking questions
eventually writing 3/8, 2/8,
2/8, 1/8 on the board.
Explain that when we add
the Numerators together
we get 8/8 or 1 which
shows the whole pizza.
Hand out worksheet to Ask “Does anybody have Students will ask questions
each student. Explain that any questions before we and then start working.
to complete, they will need get started?”
to go to each station and
use the recipe and each
groups pizza to get the
answers. The answers
must be written in fraction
form.
Monitor students as they Move around to different
move from station to stations filling our
station collect data. worksheet.
Encourage students to
work together and ask each
other questions if they get
stuck. Help students as
necessary.

Explanation Time: 10 Minutes

What teacher will do? Probing/Eliciting Student Responses
Questions
 Once student’s complete
worksheets, have different
students share the “recipe”
from the other groups
pizza’s, by writing the
recipe on the board.
Continue until one or two
recipes are compete. Then
have students add the
numerators to form a
whole.
Explain that we only add
the top number or
numerator because that is
the number of individual
slices of pizza, and the
denominator stays the
same because it shows
how many equal slices the
whole pizza is divided into.
Explain that 8/8 is the same
as 1 or the whole pizza.
Expand on student
answers and explain that
when we count money, tell
time or cook, we are using
fractions.
Elaboration
What Teacher will do?
Pick a student to hand out
a play dollar and 4 play
quarters to each student.
Explain that if we were to
divide a dollar into four
equal parts each part
would be worth a quarter.
Make sure that the correct
answer /4 is written on the
board.
Ask “What was the recipe
for the pizza from group
4?”
Ask “If we add the
Numerators together what
do we get?”
Ask “So what is the total
after we add our
numerators together?”
Ask “What are some other
ways that we use fractions
and we don’t even realize
it?”
Ask “What do you think I
mean by that?”
Probing/Eliciting
Questions
Ask “How would we write it
in a fraction if we divide the
dollar into 4 equal parts?
What would the bottom
number be?”
Ask “If we had half of a
dollar, how many quarters
would we have and what
would the top number be?”
Students will write answers
on the board.
Students will volunteer to
add numerators and write it
on the board.
Students will give answer
8/8 or 1.
Students will give various
answers.
Students will give
feedback, direct them
toward the concept of
using fractions to tell time,
count money or cook.
Time: 5 Minutes
Student Response
Students will volunteer to
come write answer on the
board.
Students will volunteer to
come write answer on the
board.
Make sure the answer on
the board is 2/4 and explain
that if we had all 4 quarters
we would have a whole
dollar and that would look
like 4/4 or 1 whole dollar.

Teacher will briefly talk
about how an hour is
divided into equal parts
and how we use fractions
when measuring
ingredients for cooking.
Ask “Has anybody heard Students will share
someone say, we are examples and different
leaving in a half an hour?” experiences.
or helped cook or bake
something and had to use
¼ or ½ cup?”

Evaluation/Check for Time: 3 Minutes

Understanding
What Teacher will do? Probing/Eliciting Student Response
Questions
Teacher will collect
worksheets completed by
students using information
from different groups pizza
and use them to evaluate
student knowledge.