Sequencing Pizza—-{with SpeechSnacks for “first, next, last” and good listening skills}

Is it a pizza?  Is it a burger?? It’s both—and your kids will love it!!!  And to close out the month of March with another “green” recipe—I’ve topped this pizza-burger with some healthy salad greens.  I used arugula but any leafy greens will work—romaine, spinach, kale—take your pick.  Top it with a light dressing like balsamic vinagrette or squeezed lemon with olive oil, light salt and pepper. 

Let the kiddos help press and roll out the dough, add the toppings in proper sequence as you have them repeat them back to you and you’ve turned your healthy dinner into a language lesson.    This week I’ve included a sequencing/listening game, a fun pizza itunes app, a recipe for edible play-doh so they can have fun playing with their foods and a pizza themed toy to play at home or in your speech lessons.   There’s enough pizza burger fun to keep ’em happy, healthy and busy for quite a while!

HOT PIZZA BURGER with CRISP SALAD GREENS

**Remember that while this recipe requires adult supervision and involvement, kids can take part in much of the preparation.  In addition, photos can be printed out and used as a sequencing task after you have completed the recipe.  It’s a great way to  work on increasing sentence length and conversational skills as well!

I love this herb infused pizza dough from Trader Joe’s! It adds extra flavor to an otherwise plain old pizza crust.   This is  1 lb of dough.

I let my pizza dough sit out on a counter for a few hours, covered with a clean dish cloth. It will help the dough grow and make it pliable for rolling out. This is the same tray that my grandmother used for many years to make her pizzas in. It ‘s a bit non-traditional since it will form a rectangular pizza crust—but that makes it even more fun to eat!

Let the kids press the dough into the tray, using fingers to  stretch it and a rollingpin to fit it into the pan.  Great for working on MOTOR SKILLS!

The next few steps are a job for grown ups only—-discuss the meanings of the words ground, chop, dice, and sautee with your kids.

For this pizza burger, I used 1 lb of lean ground beef. Brown it thoroughly in a large frying pan..

Compare/contrast the onion and garlic….how are they the same/different in size, smell, color, and taste??

Saute 1/2 chopped onion and 2-3 cloves of garlic and add to the pan with the browned meat.

I always cook my pizza dough prior to adding toppings. This will ensure a crispy, not soggy, pizza crust. Cook in a 350 degree oven for approximately 10 minutes.

Instead of tomato sauce, I added one can of chopped/diced tomatoes to the meat mixture and incorporate thoroughly.

Spoon the meat/tomato mixture onto the pizza crust and spread evenly.

Kids can assist in this next step…help them SPOON ON and SPREAD OUT the meat/sauce mixture and SPRINKLE ON the cheese.

Add a cheese blend of cheddar, jack and/or mozzarella to your pizza burger. Place pizza burger into the oven at 350 for approximately 15-20 minutes.

Remove pizza from oven and top with fresh greens!!! !! I used arugala leaves, which are delicate and  peppery .  You can also use spinach, romaine lettuce or any other greens that you think your family will enjoy. Top with a light Italian dressing, balsamic dressing, or simple dressing made with freshly squeezed lemon, olive oil and salt/pepper.

Check out the printable worksheets…. Print out and laminate several copies of the pizza crust (one per student in your group).  Cut out and laminate the “toppings” for durability.

GAME 1:

Have  your kiddos play the part of the waiter or waitress.  You order a pizza the way you like it and have them remember the order of the toppings.  OR order two pizzas to make it even more challenging and ask them to remember the toppings you ordered for each pizza!! When repeating the order of toppings, have your kids organize the sequence by saying “FIRST you ordered tomatoes, NEXT ,you ordered cheese, THEN you ordered pepperoni and LAST (or FINALLY) you ordered spinach.”  This will help them organize their thoughts into a complete sentence.   Order less toppings if this is too challenging—depending on the age/ability level of the child.

 GAME 2:

The toppings have a 1-step command printed on them. Cut these  out and laminate. Place them face down in a pile.  Have your student draw one, two, three or even four—depending on how many steps you are targeting in their goals—-Read the cards in order and have them execute the directions.  If they correctly follow the directions, they get to add those toppings to their pizza.  You can make it into a little competition and see who gets the most toppings!!  Use blank toppings to write your own directions.

Toppings include tomatoes, onions, cheese, sausage, peppers, anchovies (yuck!), onions, garlic, mushrooms, spinach

PAPPA’S PIZZA PILE UP

I love this game—I received it as a gift when my son was a preschooler and later started using it with my speech kiddos!

Can you help complete his pizza? Or will the pizza topple over before all the toppings have been added? Players take turns rolling the die and placing cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms and pepperoni piece’s onto  the pizza pie. If you cause the
pizza to tip and some of the toppings fall off, you lose! The player who can outlast all other opponents wins the game! For advanced play, take Poppa off his base and he wobbles around even more while holding the pizza!I like to use this game while addressing many articulation and language goals.  And if you are working on the bilabials /p,b,m/ there are many words built into this game—pepperoni, mushrooms, pizza, pappa, mustache, buttons, balance, mozzarella. 

Chocolate Pizza itunes app

Use this fun app to work on descriptions as you build your own chocolate pizza.  Great for articulation carry over too!!

EDIBLE PLAY DOH!

I found this recipe at www.cooks.com.  And although it does have a bit of sugar in it, most of the other edible play doh recipes contained peanut butter.  This was one of the few that didn’t.  Even though I am not a fan of Kool-Aid, I like that it adds some color to make it more fun!!!

Let the kids have fun rolling out the dough into a pizza crust, with cookie cutters or any other imaginative way to get them creating.  Reinforce action words like roll, press, and cut and expand on these words to create longer phrases and sentences.