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PIZZA-THON

The farm-to-table pizza competition!

2023 Theme: MyPlate Pizza

Engage grades K-5 Iowa students in the science and social studies of producing pizza ingredients!  

Use curated lesson plans and resources to teach the concepts necessary to complete the project. Final projects may be entered in the Pizza-thon competition for a chance to win a prize for the class!

Submit Entry Full Rules  Rubrics

Sponsored in part by the Iowa Pork Producers Association

Teacher Resources

Teachers can use these lessons for grades 3-5 to help teach the writing process and prepare students to enter the contest. Each lesson includes instructions for in-person learning as well as a virtual adaptation. 

• Lesson 1 - Plants Animals, People, and Technology: Students discover that pizza ingredients are made from plants and animals raised on farms and identify the natural resources, people, and technology needed to make pizza.
• Lesson 2 - Natural Resources: Through three activities, students will learn about how natural resources are used to produce food, the value of topsoil, and how farmers protect and conserve natural resources.
• Lesson 3 - Soil to Slice: Students learn about the process of raising dairy cows, turning milk into cheese, and distributing the cheese to restaurants, and then work in teams to research the soil to slice path of other pizza ingredients.

Suggested Supporting Resources

Lesson Plans

• K-2
  • From Pig to Bacon
  • Dairy Products We Eat
  • Farm Economics and Food Processing
  • Iowa Pork and the U.S.
• 3-5
  • Cracker Pizza
  • Pigs and Pork: Resources Farm to Fork
  • Where Does My Food Come From: Virtual Escape Room
  • Pizza Time!
  • Food Miles

Books

• So You Want to Grow a Pizza
• Extra Cheese, Please!
• From Milk to Cheese (Start to Finish)
• From Milk to Cheese (Who Made My Lunch)
• Farmers Market
• Alice Waters and the Trip to Delicious
• Bread Comes to Life
• Food From Farms
• From Wheat to Bread (From Farm to Table)
• From Wheat to Bread (Start to Finish)
• From Wheat to Bread (Who Made My Lunch)
• Grow! Raise! Catch!
• How Did That Get in my Lunchbox?
• The Grain Group
• The Vegetables We Eat
• Tomatoes Grow on a Vine
• Pigs and Pork in the Story of Agriculture
• Celebrate Wheat

Other

• Pizza Time bulletin board
• Pizza-thon crossword puzzle

History

The Pizz-a-Thon program was originally developed by Eldon Weber as a result of the Iowa State University "Vision 2020" program. It launched in 1994 and has enjoyed student engagement ever since. The Iowa Agriculture Literacy Foundation is pleased to carry on this tradition of educating students about agriculture.