Ordering a Pizza & Pass the Potato

These games will help to grow the brains of infants and toddlers. Whether it’s through singing, dancing, cuddling, rocking, talking, smelling, or tasting, you can encourage the brain pathways to make new connections.

Activities for Toddlers
Communication with a young child creates the patterns for understanding. Laughter, especially, helps in releasing feel good chemicals and responses in the body, thereby increasing attachment and feelings of self-worth.  

Ordering a PizzaYou will need pictures of pizza.

Ask the children if their parents have ever ordered a pizza by telephone.

Talk about what information you would give on the phone.

What kind of pizza?

What size pizza?

Your name.

Your address.

Your telephone.

Have a pretend conversation with the children and order a pizza.

After you have played this a few times, you will see the children start to play this game with their friends.

Ideas for taking this activity to the next level:
For building confidence –Ask the child “what kind of pizza do you like to eat?”

For developing the idea –Tell the child that you are going to pretend to talk on the phone and order a pizza. As the child to tell you what he would like on his pizza.

For moving forward – Look at the pictures of different pizzas and talk about what others like to eat on their pizza.

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Pass the Potato  You will need pictures of potatoes and a large russet potato.

Talk about all of the ways that you can cook a potato…boil, fry, mash, bake, etc

Sit the children in a circle and sing the following to the tune of the song "London Bridges."

Round the circle, here it comes

Here it come, here it comes

Round the circle, here it comes

Pass the potato
As the children are singing this rhyme, they pass the russet potato from one to another. When the rhyme is finished, the child left holding the potato gets to come into the circle and pretend he is eating a potato. He can also tell what kind of potato he is eating...mashed, fried, boiled, etc.

Ideas for taking this activity to the next level:
For building confidence – Let the children tell you what kind of potatoes they like.
For developing the idea – What sound does the word “potato” start with?

For moving forward – I’ll name some words and you tell me if they have the same sound as “potato.” Pig, party, happy, funny, pony……etc.