Best Math Lesson Ever

Math has never been my favorite subject, except for second grade. When I was in second grade my teacher made math fun. I remember her lessons being exciting and engaging. Many of her lessons were hands-on and had meaning. In other words they made sense to me. One of my favorite lessons had to do with a pizza. We had the opportunity to go to a pizza parlor and create our own pizza. The pizzas were used for our fraction lesson. We learned whole, half, 1/4, and 1/8. What was great about this lesson is we did not feel like we were learning. Once the lesson was over we each made a personal pizza that was cut into four slices. Once the pizzas were cooked we got to eat our pizza. We made math sentences as a class as we designed our pizza. I can remember one sentence that read like this: “Alexxis’s pizza has 15 pepperonis on it, Amber’s pizza has 10 pepperonis and Helen’s pizza has no pepperoni. How many pepperonis are on all three pizzas”? I remember this word problem for two reasons: one – my name and pizza were used and two – I got the answer correct. I also remember this lesson because we were so excited and at the same time we were so well behaved. Our teacher used clapping signals to get our attention and we had a lot of parent chaperones with us to keep us on task. My grandpa went with us and I loved having him with me. I loved this teacher as a child and as a future educator I really appreciate the time she spent on each lesson and how creative she was.