THOUSAND OAKS : Students Learn Math While Munching Pizza

A class of Thousand Oaks third-graders who won a pizza party by raising more money for school improvements than their schoolmates found that the party became a math lesson.

But they didn’t mind teacher Susan Hober’s lesson in “edible fractions,” even though the Madrona Elementary School students missed recess one day this week to make the pizzas.

Hober, nominated by the Conejo Valley Unified School District for a national award given to the best first-year teacher, said the pizza exercise is more than fun.

“As they eat, they say how much of the pizza is left, so they can actually visualize how fractions are divided and how division is a part of fractions,” Hober said.

The students this year have not only learned what fractions are, they started learning how to reduce them and to figure common denominators, Hober said.

Their ease with numbers seemed evident when it came time to cut the pizza. Each group had been assigned to carve its pies in thirds, fourths or fifths, but some students opted to cut their giant pieces down to size.

“She cut hers in thirds and she cut hers in half, but mine is whole,” said Erin Bray, 8, who bravely ate one-quarter of a pizza without first reducing it.

At another table, 8-year-old Ashley Patteson held up her first slice to announce, “There was 16 when we started, so this is 1/16th.”

Motivated by the pizza, Ashley’s desk mate displayed some impressive divisional skills of her own, figuring out how to divide the pie among four students.

“We each get four each,” said Heather Kittel, 9.