Tot School – Pizza – 28 Months

This week’s theme was PIZZA! I’ve come to the realization that – at this stage – Alex is only going to cooperate if he’s very interested in the theme. Pizza is one of Alex’s great loves in life, so we had fun with it this week.

I created a slice of pizza in Photoshop, then used it to create an alphabet matching game for Alex. This was a hit, and we did it over and over again. It takes time to create these, but this game can grow with Alex if I make lowercase pepperoni to match the uppercase pizza slices…and Max will be able to use these eventually, too. (I’m attempting to share the files, but I’ve never used 4Share before. Please let me know if the link below doesn’t work.)

Felt pizza – Okay, I followed instructions found on Confessions of a Homeschooler for a sewn felt pizza, but I never got around to sewing it. It’s okay, though, as Alex wasn’t as excited about this as I thought he’d be.

Paper Plate Pizza – this idea came from Preschool-Daze…fingerpaint, paper scraps cut by mom, and a glue stick…can’t get much easier!

Want some pizza, Mom?

There are lots of really fun pizza-themed children’s books, but only a few in our local library system. Alex BEGGED me to read these books over and over again. I definitely have Hi Pizza Man memorized! Alex loved that book, too. The repetition in the book is great for toddlers! He recited that book to me many times throughout the week. It was so cute to hear him say, “Roar, Pizza Dinosaur!”

(This seems to be the quickest way to link book titles/pictures to Amazon. I’m NOT doing this for any advertising/money-making purposes…although I suppose I wouldn’t complain if you chose to buy a book through these links, ha ha!)

Making Pizza – Alex loves helping in the kitchen, and I’ve been putting it off for several weeks because it’s so much easier to do it on my own. Sometimes I just need to take a deep breath and let him help! (He also helped me make breaded pork chops earlier this week and almost dumped rainbow sprinkles into the breading while I was busy with the baby…wouldn’t that have been a pretty dinner?!)

I’d like to say this was a super-fun experience, but it was interrupted with trouble-making, AWOL pepperoni (which I know I bought on Monday…), a tantrum when I made him stop eating the cheese, and a few other mishaps. At least he had a smile on his face when he ate his pizza!

We also went to a local restaurant on Saturday night, where we had burgers, but where they also serve pizza. Alex had GREAT fun watching the man making pizza dough, tossing it, and rolling it out for pizzas. The man noticed Alex watching, and he started doing his job with a little more flair. Alex LOVED it!

Alex also spent a lot of time playing outside, helping Daddy with yard work, playing with trucks and tractors, and doing random activities like these…

Pompoms and an ice cube tray - simply for the joy of putting small items in holes…if he ever masters our small plastic tweezers, we’ll add a little challenge to this activity:

Alex & I took turned naming the colors as we put them in the container:

Alex asked to play Fisher Price’s Alphabet Zoo game this week, which he hasn’t requested in a while. It’s great practice in learning letters, naming animals, and learning animal sounds.

I’m thinking about skipping Q next week, as I just don’t see Alex getting into queens, quilts, or any other cute little Q theme. He recognizes the letter Q. We’ll come back to it another time when I’m feeling a little more inspired.

We’ll be trying out a RACECAR theme next week! I’m having fun making a racecar number matching game for him, and I may try to make some sort of color matching game, too…we’ll see what I have time to do! I’m so thankful for a wonderful husband who spoiled me with Photoshop a few years ago…I may not have the desire to digital scrapbook anymore, but it sure is fun to create learning games for Alex! :)

To see what other tots are doing, head on over to the official Tot School website!