Watch out all you Masterchefs – our Y4 children proved today, at our Pizza Party, that they are truly culinary geniuses and shining stars. So, how did the children achieve all this?
At the beginning of our theme ‘Come Dine With Me’ we gave the children a selection of fresh vegetables and fruit to wet their appetites and awaken their sensory perceptions. Children used a variety of ways to show their likes and dislikes, such as using subject specific words like juicy, spicy, bitter, sweet as well as old and tried methods such as grimacing and face pulling – particularly after savouring the olives. The children were delighted to watch Spigolo, an italian chef, spin and throw pizza dough in the air which inspired them to find out more about what makes a perfect pizza. Working in pairs, the children developed their literacy and ICT skills to search the web for different pizza recipes. They used their knowledge of the Eatwell Plate to ensure they focused on the healthiest of pizza toppings and pizza dough, then wrote about their top three.
Also our ‘Come Dine With Me’ theme was a fantastic opportunity for children to develop their number skills in real life situations. Each child compared prices of basic pizza topping ingredients across three well-known supermarkets. They used column addition to work out the total cost of buying ingredients to make two different pizzas, then used a blank number line to find the difference in price between the cheapest and most expensive supermarket.The children even compared items looking at price by weight and were amazed to find out that parmesan cheese was the most expensive ingredient at £20.00 per kg! This work led to a Supermarket Challenge where children could buy ingredients to make their own pizza but within a budget. Unsurprisingly, we’ve definitely discovered a few thrifty shoppers in Y4!
We wanted children to understand that a pizza, like any other product, has to meet the needs of its user so children carried out their own market research to find out what parents wanted. Children worked in pairs to design their own questionnaire using Google Forms. They suggested relevant questions pertaining to personal preferences as well as health and safety e.g. Do you have any allergies? After careful analysis of this data, each child wrote their own recipe especially with their parent/guardian in mind.The children used canva website to personalise invitations for their Pizza Party.
The morning of our Pizza Party was a cooking extravaganza. How did we manage to cook 75 individual pizzas before 12pm? With the help of our wonderful headcook Julie – thank you so much for your patience and support. Equally on that note, our heartfelt thanks and sincere gratitude go to our Governor and Tesco’s Community manager, Vicky Gallagher, for the generous donations of vegetables, fruits and pizza bases the children received.
However the biggest thanks go to you, the parents, guardians, grandparents, friends etc for attending our Pizza Party and sharing the experience with the children. Also, for those who were unable to attend, thank you for suggesting that your child makes their pizza at home.The children loved the idea that they were making a pizza just for YOU! We hope you loved it too.
