Chapter 5: Counting the Treasure
The Pie Chart
"This pie chart looks delicious... and informative!"
A literal fruit pie on a table, cut into slices of different sizes.
About this page
Page 62 serves up the most delicious joke in the book: the pie chart is an actual pie. Some slices are big, some are small, and that is the entire lesson. A pie chart shows how one whole thing gets divided into parts, and bigger slices mean bigger shares. Children compare slice sizes at every birthday party, so this concept is already living in their hands and stomachs. It is a perfect example of how data is everywhere in a child's ordinary day, hiding in dinner plates, pizza boxes, and dessert. Understanding parts of a whole starts long before anyone says the word fraction.
Talk about it while you color
- Which slice of pie would you pick, and who should get the biggest one?
- If this pie showed your family's favorite fruits, what would the big slice be?
- How could you cut a pie so everyone gets exactly the same amount?