Pizza Game

A good friend of mine taught us this game, it was during a time they were exploring the concept of money. It was originally played with cookies, but when it became clear how often we would be playing it due to its popularity we switched to pizza.

Each of the kids get a rolled out piece of dough. The toppings (including sauce and cheese) are put in the middle of the table. Beside the toppings is a price list for everything. Some of the items are priced by the spoonful (ie. sauce, diced peppers, onions), others are per item or a few for a price and the cheese is usually per pinch. Each of the kids are given a certain amount of money (at our house it is usually $1), that is for spending on creating their pizza. Some of my kids go for lots of sauce, others like to have a smaller amount of sauce so they can spend more on the toppings. They always have enough money to buy what they need. They need to figure out if sauce is .20 cents a spoonful, what does that look like in change. And how much would it cost for three scoops. We play it frequently enough that I am not usually involved. The kids are motivated to help chop, shred, open the sauce, roll the dough, write the price list and be the banker. They are sometimes disappointed when we order instead of having the 'pizza game'.

Money Poem

Penny, Penny, east spent,

Copper brown and worth one sent

Nickel, nickel, thick and fat

You're worth five. I know that.

Dime, dime, little and thin.

I remember you're worth ten.

Quarter, quarter, big and bold,

You're worth twenty five I am told.

Half a dollar, half a dollar

Giant size.

Fifty cents to buy some fires.

Dollar, dollar green and long,

With 100 cents you can't go wrong.

Bill Martin Jr,