Fractions can be a strong point of contention among many students and their teachers. Teachers and parents know how important fractions are, but often, kids struggle with them. This is where Auntie Pasta’s Pizza Fraction Game comes in! Introduce fractions to your young children in an easy and fun way!
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Auntie Pasta’s is a game that has been a favorite with my kids since my daughter was 4. In fact, I give full credit to Auntie Pasta’s for my kids’ familiarity and comfort with fractions, which is no small feat.
How to Play Auntie Pasta’s
The basic gameplay is that on your turn, you spin the spinner, and do what the spinner tells you to do. There are spots for each of the different pizza pieces, gain or lose a pizza box, share a slice, or a nice big spot for player’s pick. This helps move the gameplay along, so you’re not forever spinning, trying desperately to get the one piece you’re missing.
Each player has 4 pizzas to fill – one whole pizza, a pizza with 2 halves, one with 3 thirds, and one with 4 fourths. Each of the different fractions has a different topping; ¼ pizzas are olive, ⅓ pizzas are pepperoni, ½ pizzas are mushroom, and whole pizzas have bell peppers. (I find it telling that the only pizza slice I had to verify toppings on was the whole pizza, though my daughter still remembered. We’ve played this game a LOT!) According to printed rules, you have to place the appropriate pizza slice on its indicated spot on the board – more about this later.
Pizza Boxes
If you have a completed pizza and the spinner lands on “Gain a pizza box” on your turn, you can put the pizza box on your completed pizza. This protects your pizza, making sure no one can steal a slice from it. And about that – there are enough pizza slices so that everyone playing can complete all their pizzas, minus one piece (for the game, not for each player). For example, if the maximum of 4 people are playing, there are only 3 whole pizzas, 7 half pizzas, 11 third pizza pieces, and 15 quarter pizza slices.
This means your spinner may land on a type of pizza, and there’s none left in the center of the board to take from. If there’s an uncovered pizza slice of that type on someone else’s board, you have no recourse but to steal their slice. This competitive aspect has led to some . . . rather tumultuous gaming sessions at my house. We’ve found it easier, both in setup and in managing player attitudes, to just leave all the pieces in the game.
Auntie Pasta’s Modifications
We’ve been playing this game now for at least 2 years, so to keep it fun, we’ve made some changes. After keeping all the pizza slices in the game, the next rule change we made was that you could store extra slices off your board. So, let’s say you already have 2 half-pizza slices, making that pizza whole, but then the spinner lands on another mushroom (half-pizza) slice. According to the original rules, you’d pass the spinner and wouldn’t really get a turn, but with this modification, you could still take another mushroom slice and keep it in front of you.
Our favorite modification, by far, has been that we no longer require you to fill your pizzas with the indicated pieces. You could have 4 whole pizzas, or 1 half and 2 quarters in one pizza. I feel like this has really helped my kids get comfortable knowing that ½=¼ + ¼. In fact, any time we’re measuring something with fractions (often with baking), and they’re having a hard time converting fractions or multiplying them or adding them, I bring it all back to Auntie Pasta’s. Your recipe calls for 1 cup of flour, but you’ve already used all the 1 cup measuring cups, and ⅓ is your biggest measuring cup available? How many pepperoni slices would it take to fill a pizza? My kids INSTANTLY know the answer to that question, just because we’ve played Auntie Pasta’s so many times.
Auntie Pasta’s is Perfect for Young Kids
The game box says it’s for kids ages 6 and up. Since there are no small pieces, and the entire game is sturdy and well-made, I think this game could easily be used with much younger kids. Mine were 4 and 5 when we got it, and had no problems. Now that they’re 6 and 8, I think we’re ready to pass this game along. I’d still use it with a kid in the 6-9 age range if they were having trouble with fractions, but the game is very limited. It only has three fractions – ½, ⅓, and ¼; my kids are ready for something with a bit more variety. However, for establishing that base of comfort and familiarity, this game is superb.
An alternative game that is currently being made (and so more readily available) is Blobby’s Pizza. I haven’t played it, but I’ve heard good things about it. There’s also a Pizza Fraction Game by Learning Resources that might meet your needs. Finally, I created a game, called Pizza Parlor, that is great for older kids, as it covers multiplication and division of fractions, as well as smaller fractions.
Still not sure? Watch our play-through on YouTube to get a better idea if Auntie Pasta’s Fraction Game is the perfect game for your family!