Feeding our minds and our tummies, too!

 

This week, we've been building on our knowledge of shapes by experimenting with finding fractions of circles, squares and triangles. 

We have learnt that fractions are equal parts of a whole: halves are two equal parts of a whole; quarters are four equal parts of a whole.

The word equal is important. If you're sharing a pizza with friends, you have to cut it into equal pieces. Otherwise, someone might be disappointed. Imagine if you're the person who gets the smaller slice!

All this learning is hungry work. But, wait a moment! We know that baking and cooking are full of maths (counting, measuring, adding...). What if we got to practise our fractions by making and cutting up some actual pizza?

As an added bonus, making pizza dough with yeast also gives us a chance to observe something that grows and changes, which is a neat connection to our Inquiry.

Here's the whole process from start to finish.

We used fresh yeast. Some of us liked the smell of it - and some didn't! We added a little sugar to feed the yeast, and some water. And then we waited for it to bubble.

Mixing in the dough, making sure to add the right amount of water.

Time to knead.

After kneading, we let the dough prove and noticed how it became bigger and more bubbly.

Now time for Team Sauce to get to work. We made a pizza sauce with tomato, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper. We also grated the cheese.

We spread the dough out into circles, spread it with sauce and a sprinkle of cheese.

Time for the oven! The dough went even puffier in the oven and the cheese melted. Yummo!

We had a few pizzas so experimented with cutting them into different fractions.

Our quarters, sixths and eighths are delicious!