We’ve been busy with the salt dough again, this time making a fantastic pizza play food set. We recently went to an Italian Pizzeria and the children adored seeing the chef spinning the dough and creating an assortment of toppings.
The very next day they wanted to create their own pizza which we did and it was of course delicious.The trouble was the children wanted to make pizza again and again and as much as I value the learning experience of making your own pizza, I can’t let the smalls eat pizza every night can I?
Hence our fun pizza play food set was born. Now they can play at pizza making as much as they like and create all sorts of tasty combinations with the felt toppings. Yummy fun and so many learning opportunities!
Supplies To Make A Pizza Play Set For Imaginative Play
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- One quantity of our simple salt dough recipe found here.
- Light brown and red paint (We used acrylics because they are durable.)
- A selection of coloured felt (You could use coloured paper instead.)
How To Make Imaginary Play Pizza Set
Prepare the simple salt dough recipe and roll out thinly and cut into a large round. (We cut round a large dinner plate.) Divide the pizza base into slices.
Bake in the oven on its lowest setting for 3 to 4 hours until fully dried out. It may need a little longer depending on the thickness of the pizza base.
Paint your pizza base, brown for the underside and crust and red for the tomato sauce and allow to dry.
Cut out a selection of pizza toppings from the felt. We cut simple curves for red, orange and green pepper; small black ovals for olives; yellow splats for melted cheese and brown mushrooms. How about adding anchovies, capers, ham and pineapple too?
The Importance of Role Play…What are the learning opportunities?
Role play activities are of course lots of fun for children across all age ranges, but they are also so much more. They offer a great way to build creativity and nurture the imagination and they give a safe environment to explore social situations and develop social skills like turn-taking and sharing.
But that’s not all, look at some of the other learning that your children can get out of an activity like this?
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- Measure out the ingredients – weighing and comparing – maths.
- Mixing the ingredients and baking – exploring changing states, irreversible changes – science
- Slicing your pizzas – looking at fractions, are you cutting it into quarters, sixths or eigths?- maths
- Choosing toppings – A great opportunity to discuss healthy eating options.
- Cutting out the food shapes-Fine motor skill development.
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There are lots of ways that you could extend this activity too:
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- Use play or real money to pay for pizzas.
- How about being different types of customer in their restaurant, a fussy eater or a grumpy and moaning customer for example.
- Ask the children to create a menu and price list for their pizzeria.
- Explore time with opening and shutting times of their restaurant.
- Make chef hats.
- Design a pizza for someone in particular, perhaps someone in the family or someone famous like the Queen, or perhaps a character from a story…I wonder what kind of pizza Roald Dahl’s Mr Twit would like?
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We hope you have lots of fun with the Pizza Play Food Set.