#FamilyFriday - Pizza Box Fun

PRE-K & K-PREP SKILLS: Fine motor including gluing, cutting with child safety scissors and coloring; Identification of shapes and colors; Executive function to help plan what will go in the square space on the pizza box. There's a RECYCLING MESSAGE in this activity too.

Friday and pizza make a great pair. If Pizza's on the menu this weekend, save the pizza box. I got this idea from a local Cafe Pizzaiolo when I noticed the original and folksy artwork on the walls. (They have great pizza too). Liv and I liked the 3D aspect of the artwork, some of which we could tell had been made by children. There were other pieces that were clearly done by experienced artists. The closer we looked, we realized the art was all done on pizza boxes, dozens of them! The boxes gave the artwork that 3D appearance, i.e., VERY COOL. We fell in love with the idea of creating our own "pizza box art" to bring back to  Cafe Pizzaiolo and display with the others. So we wasted no time in:

1) eating pizza,
2) eating more pizza,
3) saving the pizza box,
and creating our masterpiece.

Liv used pen to color the girl (herself) and a combination of construction paper and ribbon to make the table, bird, tree, grass and flower. I let Liv take the lead (even though I wanted to make a collage out of magazine clippings). As parents, even though it's hard, we should try to resist directing our children's play and let them take the lead. This is called child-directed play and it enhances self-confidence, self regulation and "an opportunity for the child’s access to focused, uninterrupted adult attention and close contact, without having to rely on negative or provocative behaviors to do so."

Please post any pizza box art here or on our Facebook page!

We'd love to see it!

GET MORE RESEARCH-BASED, FUN & FREE SCHOOL READINESS ACTIVITIES with the groundbreaking book, SCHOOL IS NEW TO ME: A Beginner's Guide to Starting School.  (Children 2-5yrs.)

---