How-To Lesson for PreK

I've been on a kick with PreK lessons lately...just experimenting with different lesson ideas and exploring different book options. As you all know, my collection is very old and I'm working hard to bring in new books. I had the idea of doing a lesson with PreK involving the making of a pizza after seeing this image on Pinterest from the www.shesaved.com website.

I thought it might be fun to read a story about making a pizza and then see if the kiddos could re-tell the steps. I searched my library high and low for the right book and just couldn't find anything exciting. Then, I remembered that when one of my son's was little, he loved Curious George books. There was a Curious George book about making and delivering a pizza....sure enough, it was in my library. Now, if I had other (more modern) books available, I certainly would try to use one. This particular book is a little dated. For example, the characters use a land line phone mounted on the wall, there is a jukebox in the restaurant, and it could be argued that there are some stereotypical characters, as well. But, it was what I had, this was PreK, and I felt like I could make it work.

The kids loved this book and the topic! I did a little introduction to ask students what they knew about pizza. They came up with some great responses! They knew it had to be cooked, it had cheese, it was a circle, that you can eat it, and that it could be cut! I did the read aloud and really emphasized the cooking of the pizza section. After that, we reviewed the steps for making the pizza that Tony the Baker had followed. I had these steps written on a dry erase board at the carpet area, but this was only for my benefit....

Example

Finally, students moved to tables where they were given supplies to make their own pizzas. We reviewed the steps one at a time. They received:
*a paper plate
*an oval (but swiggly) red shape
*a cup with yellow squares and rectangles
*a brown or tan crayon
*a glue stick
As we reviewed each step, they completed their own project. We drew a big circle on our plate and colored it in with crayon for the dough. We then glued our red sauce on the plate in the center of the dough, being careful not to "spill" our sauce on the plate or the table. We added cheese....as much or as little as we liked. I normally try to take pictures of these activities in process, but this one took me and the two PreK teachers all of the energy and attention we could muster, so no photos...sorry.

Cups of "cheese"

I had a few early finishers so I took this project one step further. I had an empty library shelf nearby and told the kiddos this was my pretend oven. I put my imaginary oven mitts on for safety and then put my pizza in the oven for just a few minutes to cook it. I carefully pulled it out and it was ready to deliver. They went NUTS over this!!! Suddenly they all wanted to cook their own pizzas!!!!

At the close of the lesson, I had the boys and girls stand and carry their pizzas to deliver. I told them that their teacher would show them where to deliver them (basically, they were lining up to leave and returning to their classrooms where they would put the pizzas away to be delivered home). It worked GREAT!

Bringing pizzas to the "oven"

There is so much potential with a lesson like this for the future. I would love to really work on more "how-to" and "step-by-step" type lessons with this age group. The pizza theme was a hit and I'd love to make a fake pizza oven from cardboard and maybe even have chef hats or oven mits to really get the theme going. Aprons might be fun! Lots of potential! 

Now, I've got to get on the hunt for some updated literature. Not that Curious George is bad, but a more modern book selection would make my librarian heart happy. 

All lined up with pizzas in hand!