Where’s My Pizza Pie Preschool Fraction Game

By Charlene Haukom

Preschoolers love pizza and will have a great time dividing one into fractional pieces. Teach your preschoolers fraction basics by emphasizing the concept of fractions as part of a whole. Watching the pizza disappear and reappear will help preschoolers understand this concept.

What You Will Need

Pretend Play Pizza Set w/pan (6 slices)
Where’s My Pizza Pie Fraction Cards
Cardstock
Self-Laminating Sheets (optional)

How to Play

1. Print out the Fraction Cards and cut along the dotted lines. Use cardstock and self-laminating sheets to protect your Fraction Cards.

2. Place the Fraction Cards face down near the pizza.

3. Empty the pizza pan and separate the slices.

4. Draw a Fraction Card.

5. Have your preschooler place the coordinating number of pizza slices into the pizza pan. For example, if your preschooler draws the ½ Fraction Card, s/he should put 3 pieces of pizza back into the pan to make half a pizza.

Your preschooler may not know that half of a six-slice pizza is 3 slices, but s/he may know what half a pizza looks like. If not, now is a great time to teach the concept of “half.” Just explain that half a pizza is the whole pizza split into two equal parts.

To demonstrate, assemble the whole pizza outside of the pan. Then, split the pizza into halves. Keep the halves close together with just enough space between to notice the difference. That way your preschooler can see both a whole pizza, as well as both halves. Then put half of the pizza in the pizza pan. Follow this procedure for all of the fractions.

6. Empty the pan and draw a new Fraction Card.

7. Repeat steps 4-6 until all the Fraction Cards have been used.

Make Where’s My Pizza Pie More Challenging

Fraction addition and subtraction is an elementary school concept, but there’s no reason you can’t go over some basics now. After you’ve drawn your first card and put the correct number of slices in the pan, don’t empty the pizza pan before drawing your next Fraction Card. After you draw the card, either add or subtract slices to equal the fraction on the card.

For example, suppose you have half a pizza in the pan (3 slices) and you’ve drawn the 1/6 Fraction Card. You’ll need to subtract 2 slices to equal 1/6th of the pizza. Follow the guidelines in step 5 above to emphasize fractions as part of a whole rather than focusing on the math aspect.

Variations of Where’s My Pizza Pie

Top off your preschool pizza party with the Lets Have Cake Preschool Fraction Game! Use a pretend play 4-slice cake to learn quarter fractions. Play the same way as above, just use a different set of Fraction Cards.

If you don’t have pretend pizza or cake, make your own fraction shapes out of felt sheets. Cut out a whole circle, a half, quarters, thirds and sixths. Use a full felt sheet or flannelboard as a backdrop, then place the corresponding shapes on top.

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