Grade
5

Math in Our World: Pizza Party

Ellie and George like to make pizza. Their town was holding an Earth Day festival. They volunteered to make between 20 and 30 pizzas to feed people at the celebration.

Here’s their recipe for pizza dough, which makes enough dough for one pizza.

  • A recipe for pizza dough. 3 and 1-fourth cups flour, 424 grams. 2 teaspoons salt, 14 grams. 1-fourth teaspoon yeast, 1 gram. 1 and 1-fourth cups water, 296 grams. 1 tablespoon olive oil, 15 grams.
  1. What do you notice? What do you wonder?
  2. Use pictures, models, or numbers to show what is happening.
  3. What mathematical questions can you ask about this situation? Answer all the questions you can!
  • Do you have measuring cups and spoons? Ask an adult if you can use them to model the problem.
  • Start with 2 times the recipe and use that to help you think about making more than 2 times the recipe.
  • Show your work to someone else, and explain your thinking. Did they understand?
  • Ask if they have any other questions you can answer!

Do you have all the ingredients? Maybe you could make pizza dough for your family. Ask permission before you start. (Use instant yeast, mix all the ingredients together, knead it a bit, and set it in a warmish place for a while with a cover on it. It’ll double in size, and then you can use it for pizza. Cook in a very hot oven.)

Printable Version

Google doc for printing and copying

Reference for Educators

Sample problems and solutions