P is for Pizza

Next week we will be teaching/reviewing the letter Pp with writing and initial sound practice.

"P", pizza,  /p/

I love to do Dr. Jean and Raffi's "I like to eat pepperoni pizza" song.
"I like to eat, eat, eat, pepperoni pizza.
I like to eat, eat, eat, pepperoni pizza."

I've made a pizza flip book to substitute the long vowel sound for each verse.  
Long a - "A lake tay ate, ate, ate paperana pazza..."
Long e -  "E leek te ete, ete, ete pepperene pezze..."
Long i -  "I like ti ite, ite, ite, pippirini pizzi..."
Long o -  "O loke toe ote, ote, ote, popporono pozzo..."
Long u -  "U luke tue ute, ute, ute, puppurunu puzzu..."
(I will also use this pizza book when we practice our long vowel sounds.)

These two pizza stories are fun to read and the kids LOVE them.  A boy named Pete becomes a pizza in Pete's a Pizza by William Steg.   I do explain to help some students' understand that the little boy is rolled, patted, baked as his dad pretends that he is the parts of the pizza.  
Pizza Pat by Rita Golden Gelman is a cumulative rhyming pizza version of "the house that Jack built" style.


For Math practice, I made felt pizza topping cutouts.  I took the idea from Dr. Jean and tweaked it for my supplies.  I had felt scraps rather than using fun foam.

Green rectangles- green pepper
Yellow triangles - cheese 
Brown ovals - sausage
Cream - mushrooms
Large Red circle - sauce
Gold circles painted with red sharpie - pepperoni
Black circles - olives

I didn't want to use red felt for my pepperoni pieces because my sauce is red.  I had gold scraps of felt and used a red Sharpie to color and some brown dots for my pepperoni pieces.  It had to look real to me.

I used a hole punch on a black strip of felt and cut out the olives.  I had to punch a piece of sandpaper to keep the punch cutting through. 
I also made oval sausages and rectangle green pepper pieces.  I wanted the kids to have to tell me the name of the shapes since rectangle and triangle are words they mix up. 

Recipe directions cards 

Cards will direct how each student will build their pizza and practice how to read a picture key.  I made cards in differentiated levels to practice and challenge students.


Following directions, coloring and counting 
Students can make a pizza with felt toppings then record on a card so another student must build by following their directions. 
Pizza puzzles

Students can design and color their favorite version of pizza.  Students can cut apart or teacher cut into pieces and then share their puzzle with classmates to put it back together.
Each year I seem to add and substitute activities.
I don't always do every activity, it depends on my group and their needs.

Hand-in-hand, we'll grow. 

I think I'm having pizza for dinner!