We provided playdough as a sensory experience to support the toddlers in developing their imagination and creativity skills. The toddlers were each provided with some play dough and baking toys. They were very creative and proud to express what they were doing with the playdough. Quinn was asked why she was flattening her playdough with a rolling pin. She said,“I am making pizza for my mommy”. Carina replied. “I am making chicken for my mommy”. Amaira said that she was slicing pizza.
In accordance to their interest we brought out a pizza activity. The children were given a pizza menu, pizza crust, and toppings. Carina, Callum and Amaira were determined to make the exact pizza they saw on the menu. We directed them to look at the pictures on the menu and pick pizza toppings of their choice. We had pepper, onion, peperoni, tomatoes, ham, extra cheese, mushroom, olives and more. There were also pizza slices. The toddlers would point at the picture on the menu, we labelled it and then they matched it to the pizza toppings. When they were sure of their choice they put it on the top of their pizza crust. Carina said that she wanted to make peperoni pizza. She looked at the toppings and picked as many peperoni as she could. The toddlers had fun making their custom pizzas which would enhance their independence and self-confidence.
To expand their interest, we created a pizza restaurant and provided them with a spatula, an apron, an oven tray, oven mitts and plastic pizza slices. Callum became a super busy chef. He put on the apron and oven mitts to bake pizza. He put the pizza in the oven, waited some time and then took it out of the oven when he thought it was ready. He said, “Pizza is coming” while holding a pizza tray wearing his oven mitts. Then he shared with his educators and friends. He brought pizza slices and served them to us while warning it was hot. The oven became super busy as Carina, Amaira, Quinn and Callum were baking. The toddler room changed to pizza restaurant where everyone ate pizza. Callum packed pizza in a box and brought it to Debbie as he seemed to learn how pizza is delivered. To allow for more realistic pizza deliveries, we brought in pizza boxes from city pizza. We assembled the boxes together with the toddlers. They had a blast delivering pizza in a box from one corner to the other in the class room. Carina enjoyed carrying four boxes of pizza at a time as she observed her environment. Callum displayed good promotional abilities as he was taking pizza from the box and said,“ Pizza” with a beautiful smile.
