Let’s Make Pizza – Cut, knead, roll, assemble!
We started to build and emphasis on the skills that kids can learn, and the “Lets Make Pizza” class clearly embodies this.
The skills introduce – cut, knead, roll and assemble – may seems easy to an adult, but gave that to a 3/4 years old and you’ll find how ‘raw’ they are at such things. But this is the perfect age to expose them to such skills, as it helps to hone their fine motor skills. This is also the chance to introduce about knife safety, nutrition and numeracy, just to name a few. For instance, we can tell them about a balance diet and how greens are so important it is a must to be included in the pizza; we can get them to count the numbers of parts they’ve cut in a sausage, or even set a number of parts and get them to cut it!
The other advantage is it helps to reduce the barrier for picky eaters. Why? Because they play a part in the preparation process, and it becomes easier to egg them to try – just take a tiny bite – of something they have assembled and created on their own. This may not change their preference, but it’s always a good exposure to new food ingredients for them.
We also tried to reinforce the learnings through fun activities. We created a 6-sided pizza die – comprising of a sauce, ingredients like cheese, peppers, ham etc – which we get the kid to roll, with a condition that they need to get a sauce first, before they can paste the other ingredients. Sounds easy? Not so for the kids, as their motor skills does not allow them to roll the die well. BUT this is when things get funny, as a child starts to think creatively, whereby instead of rolling, he decides to ‘drop’ the die gently such that the sauce faces up! And the rest of the kids started doing the same!!! It’s great to see how kids can learn from each other so quickly!
We also prepare a busy bag for the child to bring back, where the child can create pizzas based on the order form, or parents can introduce personalised pizza, so that the child can learn about listening to instructions while having fun!
Hope this can inspire parents to introduce useful skills to their 3-4 years old! It’s never too late to start!
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