You Can Make - And Play - The Pizza Game!

Looking for a fun way to practice some basic math skills? Try the pizza game!

homeschooling,pizza game,math skills,felt toys

We made this one ourselves. I took two sheets of light brown felt and stitched them together, cut them into a circle and made the crust. Next, I stitched together two sheets of red, cut a slightly smaller circle and sewed it onto the crust for sauce.

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Next, I cut out 'toppings'. I made enough to have up to four people play.

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You also need at least one die. We happen to have this one that has numbers on it instead of dots, but a standard die would be fine too! If you don't have a die, you can make one from a small cube-shaped box. Alternately, you could make cards with numbers on them, or use a spinner from an old game.

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To play, divide the toppings equally among the players. They don't have to have the exact same toppings, just the same number of items. Youngest goes first, and you go around the group clockwise after that.

The player simply rolls the die and adds that number of toppings to the pizza. The goal is to run out of toppings. Easy and fun, but it gives children a chance to practice taking turns along with some simple math skills. They will need to know the number, and then represent the number with actual toppings.

To make the game more complex for older children (or as your children develop additional skills), you can add more dice (introducing addition), or add rules such as:

* If you roll an even number, you put that number of pieces onto the pizza, but if you roll an odd number, you remove that many topping pieces from the pizza to your pile.

* You must have the exact number of pieces rolled on your last turn to win the game.

* If you roll a "1", draw a card after you put one piece onto the pizza. Make cards with different instructions, such as 'give three of your pieces to another player', 'take all the green olives from the pizza and put them in your pile', 'put all of your black olives on the pizza', etc.

However you play, we hope you have fun practicing math skills!

homeschooling,pizza game,math skills,felt toys

Comments

Mary said…
Thank you for sharing such an interesting game! I really look forward to trying it with my 6 yo son. I know he'll enjoy playing it!
Lamb said…
That is sooo cute! Hope you don't mind, I *shared* this post on my facebook page...so expect a few guest checking out your blog!
Anonymous said…
What, No onions????

Love, Mom
Anonymous said…
Cat,
I love it!
I may make one to save for when my granddaughters are old enough to play!
Love and God bless,
Helen
Laura said…
Thank you for all your kind words, and Lamb, feel free to share - I like the idea of more people stopping by. :)

No, no onions, because they are difficult to differentiate from the mozzarella, and because Little Bit doesn't care for onions. (It's her pizza game, after all!)
Ella said…
This is Aweomse Laura ~ I will definately be making several of these for the younger children in the family thanks for sharing such a great idea.
Blessings, Ella
What a fun idea! I am definitely going to make one of these to play with my daycare kids. I love this.
Niccole said…
I saw this post from Money Saving Mom, and will start making mine tonight! Absolutely adorable!
Unknown said…
We had a game I used when teaching special ed students that started with kids having to build the pizza using slices to teach simple fractions. Like 1/4 or 1/2 and of course a whole... a great variation to stitch up!
Unknown said…
Fun variation is to use slices to teach fractions ..
.just sew up slices and build the pizza a piece at a time! We used a similar game in my classroom with cards showing 1/4 or 1/8 .
Charlotte said…
I found this post through Money Saving Mom. Love it. My kids (and their friends) are on the perfect level for this right now. Thanks for the idea!
Anonymous said…
So cute! Im a pre k teacher and am always looking for games i can make to play with my kids at school! I can wait to make this and take to school! What a great way to teach basic math! thanks!!

Julie
Laura said…
I love the fractions idea - thank you for sharing it! I could take this same pizza crust, stitch a double line along each 'slice' and then cut the felt. For now, I think we'll leave it as-is, but when our daughter is older, I'll add the fractions. Thanks so much!

-Laura at TenThingsFarm
Anonymous said…
What a great idea! And such a quick and inexpensive gift to make if your child has a birthday party to go to.
Carolyn said…
Such a creative and cheap idea! I can't wait to make one for my girls. I linked to you here http://www.apurposedrivenhome.com/diy-learning-game/. Thanks for sharing!

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