National Cheese Pizza Day Activities: A Fun Day of Pizza, Fractions, Sequencing & Writing

For National Cheese Pizza Day, I turned our regular lessons into a pizza-themed day. We worked on sequencing, fractions, graphing, writing, and following directions, and then students made their own mini pizzas. I was still able to work in several classroom skills while everything tied back to the pizza theme.

Start With a Pizza Read Aloud

I started the day with a pizza-themed read aloud.

Pizza!: A Slice of History by Greg Pizzoli worked really well because it gave students some background about pizza before we started the activities.

Before reading, I asked students what they already knew about pizza and where they thought it came from. As we read, we stopped and talked about interesting facts. Afterward, we made a quick “Did You Know?” chart together. It was a simple way to work in some reading and discussion before moving on to the rest of our pizza activities.

Practice Pizza Sequencing

Before students made their pizzas, we worked on sequencing. We reviewed the words First, Next, Then, and Last and talked through the steps for making a mini pizza.

We went over the steps for making a mini pizza together

Then students completed the cut-and-glue sequencing page on their own.

Pizza sequencing activity using First, Next, Then, and Last.

Doing this first made the pizza-making part go much more smoothly because students already knew what came next.

Make Mini Cheese Pizzas

Once we finished the sequencing activity, it was time for the part everyone was waiting for. We made mini cheese pizzas using English muffins, pizza sauce, and mozzarella cheese.

It was simple, but they loved getting to make their own pizzas.

Students used the sequencing steps to make their mini pizzas.

One little thing that made this much easier was writing each student’s name on the parchment paper under their pizza before they went into the oven. That made it easy to keep track of whose pizza was whose when they came out.

I wrote names on the parchment paper to keep the pizzas organized.

Use Pizza to Practice Fractions

Pizza also made a really easy connection to fractions. We used paper pizza circles to talk about halves, thirds, fourths, equal parts, and how the pieces got smaller as the whole was divided into more sections.

Students practiced with the pizza fraction matching cards and then completed the fraction worksheet.

Pizza fraction matching cards for practicing halves, thirds, and fourths.

Pizza fraction practice with halves, thirds, and fourths.

Graph Favorite Pizza Toppings

The pizza theme also worked really well for graphing. We took a quick class poll to find out everyone’s favorite pizza topping and then used the results to make a picture graph and a bar graph.

Once they were finished, we talked about the data together. We looked at which topping was the most popular, which was the least popular, and how many more students chose one topping than another.

Write About Making the Pizza

After students made their pizzas, we went back to the sequencing words. They used First, Next, Then, and Finally/Last to write about how they made their pizza.

Doing the writing after the hands-on activity made it a little easier because they could think back to the steps they had just followed.

Finish With a Pizza Review

After we ate the pizzas, students rated them out of 5 stars and wrote about their favorite part. I added their photos next to the reviews, and it made such a cute hallway display.

Pizza reviews made a fun classroom display.

One Pizza Day, Lots of Learning

This was one of those days that felt fun, but it also gave us a chance to work on a lot of different skills.

We practiced:

• Sequencing

• Following directions

• Fractions

• Equal shares

• Graphing

• Data Analysis

• Writing

  
  

Other Ways to Use These Pizza Activities

You definitely don’t have to wait until National Cheese Pizza Day to use these activities. They also work well anytime you want to add a little pizza fun to what you are already teaching.

They would be great for:

• A pizza-themed classroom day

• Fraction practice

• Sequencing

• Procedural writing

• A classroom cooking activity

• Fun Friday

• A class reward

• A pizza party

• An end-of-unit celebration

  
  

You can also just use the pieces you need. Pull out the fraction activities for math, use the sequencing page during reading or writing, or save the pizza review for a quick writing activity after a pizza party.

Want to Try the Activities?

I put the activities from this day together in my National Cheese Pizza Day Activities Fractions, Graphing, Sequencing & Writing resource.

It includes the lesson plans and schedule for the day, sequencing, fraction practice and matching cards, graphing and data activities, writing pages, a pizza review, bookmarks, and directions for making the mini pizzas.

You can use everything for a full pizza-themed day or just pull out the activities that fit what you are already teaching.

National Cheese Pizza Day is September 5, but these activities can really be used any time of year when you want an easy pizza theme that still works with the skills you are teaching.

National Cheese Pizza Day Activities | Fractions, Graphing, Sequencing & Writing