This fun pizza game is a visual way of helping your child understand how times tables work. Use pizza slices to put sets of 2 on the plate and help your child understand how they have to count in 2s to find the answer to each sum.
You can use it for the 2x table at first and build up to other numbers too.
You can prepare your child by starting to count in twos together, or by teaching them to count in odd or even numbers.
Summary:
Time: 10 minutes
Ages: Little kids to Big kids
Difficulty to make: Easy peasy
Skill taught: Numeracy – times tables
You will need:
- Paper plate or other circle template to cut around
- Yellow and brown coloured card
- Circle stickers (red or white)
- Felt pens
- Scissors
- Pencil
- Ruler
- Protractor (optional)
Step 1: Make your pizza base
Draw round a paper plate (or other round template) on a sheet of brown card and cut out the circle.
Draw round a slightly smaller plate (or other round template) on yellow card and cut out the yellow circle.
Glue it on top of the brown circle to make your pizza base.
Step 2: Measure out 10 slices
Find the centre of your circle and mark it with a dot. Then draw a line from the centre to the edge.
Now use a protractor to measure out 36 degrees and draw your next line from the centre to the edge at this angle.
Carry on working your way round the circle until you have divided your pizza up into 10 equal slices. Then cut them out.
If you don’t have a protractor then you can just divide up the slices as evenly as you can with a ruler.
Step 3: Make some pepperoni
If your circle stickers are white, colour in 20 round stickers with red felt pen.
You can make them look more like pepperoni slices by adding on some little brown dots.
If you don’t have stickers you could use red buttons or even dried red kidney beans.
Step 4: Make some times table cards
Cut some rectangles of card and write 2x table sums on them. This game is for the 2x table but you can play the same game for the 3, 4, 5, 6 and other times tables too.
On our flash cards we wrote all the sums in the 2 times table:
1×2=
2×2=
3×2=
Step 5: Setting up the game
Ask your child to stick 2 pepperoni slices on each slice of pizza.
Once they have completed this then ask them how many pepperoni slices are on each slice (2).
Explain that each slice has one set of 2. Or one lot of two.
Step 6: Start the 2x table with 1 x 2 = 2
Now ask your child to take one slice of pizza and place it on the plate. Show them that there is one slice of pizza with 2 pepperoni slices. Your child has therefore placed 1 set of 2 on the plate.
Place the flashcard with 1 x 2 = down on the plate.
Talk through what this sum means and what it is asking your child to find out.
The multiplication sign (x) is just the same as asking your child to work out ‘set of’. So in this case the sum is ‘1 set of 2 is….’.
They have placed one slice of pizza with 1 set of 2 pepperoni slices on the plate. Ask them to count how many pepperoni pieces they have on their plate to find out the answer. 1 x 2 = 2.
To reinforce what your child has learnt say clearly ‘One set of 2 is 2’. ‘One two is 2’
Step 7: Carry on through the times table
Now ask your child to place 2 slices of pizza on the plate. This time they have 2 ‘sets of 2’.
Place the flashcard for 2 x 2 down and ask your child to work out the answer by counting the pepperoni slices.
Again, once they have solved the sum say clearly ‘2 sets of 2 is 4. Two 2s are 4’.
You are slowly introducing you child to the language they can use to say the full 2 x table. ‘One two is two, Two twos are four, Three twos are six…’
Step 8: Solving the sums on the flashcard
Once you have worked through the whole 2 times table up to 10, then you can play again.
This time make it a little more difficult by picking a flash card first and then asking your child to place the correct number of pizza slices on the plate. They then count the number of pepperoni slices to find the answer.
For example place the flash card ‘5 x 2=’ onto the plate. Ask your child to count out 5 pizza slices (each with 2 pepperoni slices on them) and place them on the plate. Then ask them to count out the total number of pepperoni slices now on the plate. They will find there are 10. So 5 x 2 = 10
Once your child is getting the hang of the 2x table and what it means, then you can place all the flash cards down on the table in order and help them learn them all off by heart.
You can read through it together: ‘One two is two, Two two are four, Three twos are six…’
The 2 times table is the foundation of all multiplication tables learning. Play this fun pizza game together with your child until you feel they are beginning to understand and master the 2 times table.
Once they have mastered their 2 times table, you can adjust the game for other times tables. Usually children move onto the 10 times table and then the 5 times table.
Whichever times table they learn, with these pizza slices, it’s all a fun game!
