Pizza is a fun theme to do in preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten.Kids LOVE pizza centers! Research tells us that kids learn and retain the most when they are interested and invested in what they are learning about.The group I have this year would order pizza every day for lunch if their parents let them/I knew pizza was a perfect theme for this group.
Grab the Pizza Math and Literacy Centers, Themes Directed Drawing set for a pizza directed drawing, & the Pizza Restaurant Dramatic Play set.
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My pizza theme lasted about one month in my preschool classroom, and we also did a shapes unit during the pizza theme. Shapes was the perfect math unit to teach during our pizza theme.There areshapes all over a pizza restaurant found in toppings, slices, boxes, cups, signs, pans, etc.
You will find literacy, math, fine motor, art, blocks, sensory, and dramatic play center ideas below!When I teach a theme in my classroom, I integrate it into each and every center in my classroom!
Pizza Centers and Activities for Literacy
Pizza Letter Match! Create a letter matching butcher paper game with a pizza theme! I drew a pizza and added capital letters in the pizza toppings. Then, students matched lowercase letter manipulatives. Change this to match your students’ needs easily.
Pizza Letter Search FREEBIE! Practice finding letters with this adorable pizza worksheet freebie! Students pick a letter card and then trace the letter on the pizza. Place the letter cards in a sensory bin for even more fun!
Pizza Sound Match! Help your little learners practice beginning sounds with this fun pizza sound-matching game. Students match a letter pan with the pizza sound.
Pizza Writing Center! Set up a pizza writing center in your preschool, pre-k, or kindergarten classroom to practice letters, vocabulary, sounds, and letter formation. Pizza-themed writing paper and vocabulary cards were added to the writing center! I LOVE open-ended activities so students can create something with our resources that are important to them. Students drew random pictures on the paper, copied the pizza words, drew pictures of the pizza vocabulary words, wrote letters to their friends and family, and just cut them apart into a million pieces.
Pizza Recipes! Writing recipes is always a fun writing activity with my little preschoolers.From my Pizza Centers pack, I copied and cut out all the pictures of things they could use in their recipes.I showed an example of what a recipe was, and then they could make their original pizza recipes.
It is interesting to see what they think the steps are to make a pizza.As you can see in the picture, I have students at varied levels working together on the same activity.Some students are mock writing, and some are writing just the initial sound to represent the whole word.
Pizza Words! Use the pizza word cards to help students practice spelling, letter recognition, and start to associate sounds with letters.
Pizza Books! Check out this list of my favorite pizza books for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students! These were a little tricky to find, but I found 20 great books.
Pizza Sight Words! Build a sight word is a favorite game in my classroom. Students pick a sight word and build it with the pizza letters.For my three-year-old students, we used our class name cards and built our friends’ names with the pizza letters.
Pizza Syllable Pies! Practice identifying syllables and sorting by the number of syllables with this pizza game. There are syllable pictures for 1, 2, 3, & 4 syllable words. Each syllable pie has 5 slices to complete the pizza.
Pizza Centers for Fine Motor, Sensory, & Art
Pizza Fine Motor Journal Idea! In our fine motor journals, we practiced making circles. They placed yellow dot stickers in their notebooks and then made a red circle and a brown circle to complete the activity. You can then practice making the letter o.
Pizza Delivery Maze Fine Motor Journal Idea! My students love to make these pizza delivery mazes with color masking tape. Peeling, cutting, and placing the tape in the notebook is great fine motor work and will keep your little ones busy!
Pizza Sensory Writing! Mix up some shaving cream, a couple of drops of brown liquid watercolors, and some oregano for a fun pizza sensory writing tray! I gave students some yellow, green, and red pom poms for toppings. They can use the pom poms to write the letters or words or they can use their fingers.
Pizza Play Dough Tray! Create a pizza making play dough tray with brown foam for the pan. I used homemade play dough with no coloring added for the crust. To give it a scent, I added oregano to the play dough. Then the students had foam pepperoni, yellow pipe cleaner cheese, green pipe cleaner peppers, brown pom poms for sausage or beef, and brown foam mushrooms.
Pizza Sensory Table! Give your students a fun pizza sensory table by adding flour and oregano. Then, add mini pans, pizza cutters, measuring cups and spoons, spatulas, and whatever other kitchen supplies you have in your room.
Pizza Cutter Art! Use a pizza cutter to make an open-ended art project with your students. I put out yellow, green, and red paint for pizza colors, and then they could create whatever they wanted. These pizza cutters are for Play-Doh, and they worked perfectly.You can grab the colored trays on Amazon here.
Pizza Cutting Craftivity! Grab this printable pizza cutting craftivity in the pizza centers pack, print the toppings on all the different colors, and let your students go wild making their own pizza. They can add whatever toppings they like while they practice cutting and gluing skills. Glue it to a paper plate for a step further.
Pizza Centers for Math
Pizza Counting! Practice counting toppings with these simple pizza counting mats. Add tongs or tweezers for fine motor practice. Differentiate this activity by only putting out the numbers each student is working on.
Pizza Ten Frames! I created these pizza build the number ten frames for students to practice counting and number recognition. Students pick a number card and count out that many manipulatives.
Pizza Shapes! Pizza Shapes is a fun game students can play to learn their shapes and talk about the attributes of shapes. The students who knew the name of the shape had to also describe the shape before they covered it on the pizza. For extra fun, we used bingo counters to cover the board and a magnet wand to clear it.
Pizza Spin & Graph! Pizza topping tally graph was one of their favorite games because they could spin the spinner.Each student had their own recording page to tally the results of the spins. They loved announcing the winner at the end of the game, and it was a great way to practice more and less! There is also a graphing board too! These clear spinners are awesome!Just tape the spinner to the board, and the game is ready to go!
Pizza centers for Blocks, Science, & Dramatic Play
Pizza Blocks Center! Using environmental print is a great way to give young children an opportunity for literacy practice. So I taped some pizza logos to some of the blocks, and students built structures and worked on social skills. I tried to find common logos that were in my area, like Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Papa John’s, etc.
5 Senses Science Table! A 5 senses science table would be so much fun during a pizza theme in your classroom. Students can explore the sense of taste, touch, smell, sight, and hearing with this printable science unit designed for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students.
Pizza Restaurant Dramatic Play! Take the pizza theme into your dramatic play area, too, by changing it into a pizza parlor.The waitress can take the pizza orders on order forms, the chef makes the pizza, and the customer eats it.Don’t you just love the delivery truck?!In the post, I show you how to make a pizza oven too! Check out our Pizza Restaurant HERE.
Don’t these pizza centers look like so much fun! Your little learners are going to have a great time while learning their letters, sounds, numbers, and more! Grab your lesson plans and pick your favorite pizza centers to get started today!
Don’t forget to grab the Pizza Math and Literacy Centers for all the pizza theme activities.
Grab the pizza restaurant dramatic play printables!
Want to use more environmental print in your classroom? Check out this post.
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