The theme for Cooking Class today was Owls!
We read this adorable book about this little baby owl who didn’t want to go out with his parents in the night. He meets new friends each night who teach him many ways that the night is special including stars, fireworks, campfires, and even when Santa comes. The book is The Owl Who is Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson and illustrated by Paul Howard. Your little ones will truly enjoy this story, especially now that the time change just happened and darkness is here sooner. I can’t wait to check out more from the author Jill Tomlinson, she has some great titles.
After reading our story, we made our very own Owl Pizzas. The girls followed a recipe to make their own dough, kneaded it, rolled it out into an owl shape and then created their own owl design with pizza toppings. They really had a great time and did it on their own at Age 5.
Before we started cooking we sorted our cooking tools and ingredients and labeled them. It help with learning to read and also to make our little chefs successful on their own as they measure ingredients. You can create your own Owl Pizza too. Here’s the recipe we followed but any pizza dough recipe will work.
Owl Pizza Dough Recipe
1 cup warm water
1 Tb yeast
1 tsp sugar
2 1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 Tb olive oil
1 tsp salt
Mix yeast and warm and let set for 5 minutes. Then add sugar. Mix flour, oil and salt. Then add yeast, water, sugar. Knead until smooth. Allow to rest for 5 minutes. Spread out onto baking sheet. Cover entire pizza with pizza sauce and shredded mozzarella cheese. Then add your favorite pizza toppings to create the owl. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.
We used olives for the eyes with pepperoni below them to make them appear bigger. Then the girls added pepperoni or mushrooms for the wings. Each of them had their own ideas of how to create an owl. Their creativity was so much fun to watch.
While our Owl pizzas were baking we sang a few Owl Songs.
We also created our very own Owl Handprint Shirts from our handprints! Keep checking back to The Educators Spin On It for a New Tutorial on how to make your own Owl shirt with your little ones!
Kalista says
November 8, 2011 at 1:24 pmThis is adorable!!!
Michelle Breum says
November 9, 2011 at 1:13 amOh, How fun! I haven't read this book yet.
Kim@The Educators' Spin On It says
November 9, 2011 at 9:34 pmMichelle it's adorable! You will love it! And I love how it also teaches our little ones the treasures of nighttime too. I need to go back to the library and find more by this author.
Raising a Happy Child says
November 9, 2011 at 10:43 pmThis looks so fun! We make pizza with the same recipe, but we let it rise for a while and then we make a regular pizza. My daughter doesn't eat any toppings on the pizza though, not even cheese 🙂
Brooke @ Let Kids Create says
November 11, 2011 at 10:51 pmVery cute, I just reserved myself a copy of the book from the library. My girls would go crazy for that pizza. Thanks for sharing on Monday Madness!
Kim@The Educators' Spin On It says
November 12, 2011 at 6:09 pmRaising a Happy Child I guess that means she just likes owl bread. Ours was pretty fluffy bread, I was concerned the kids would handle it too much but it turned out very well.
Kim@The Educators' Spin On It says
November 12, 2011 at 6:11 pmBrooke, so glad to see we inspired you to check out the book! We love your Monday Madness links, thank you.
Deborah says
November 13, 2011 at 3:48 pmLove the owl pizza and the owl fingerplays! What a hoot!!
MiaB says
November 13, 2011 at 3:59 pmI love this. Your pizza turned out great. Stopping by from The Sunday Showcase. I am now your newest follower. Hope you visit my blog and follow back 🙂
MiaB from http://www.heart2heart-miab.blogspot.com
Laura @Art For Little Hands says
November 13, 2011 at 8:29 pmWhat a fun pizza. I never thought of making pizza into art! Thanks for sharing on Monday Madness. Hope to see you guys back again tomorrow.
Amanda says
November 13, 2011 at 10:15 pmThanks Deborah, Mia, and Laura! Elly loves learning about cooking (and reading) with Kim. I always love to eat what the kids make us! We make home-made pizza often at our house and they are often works of art. Last year we made Kale pizza in the shape of a Christmas Tree and a Santa Pizza!!!
Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas says
November 20, 2011 at 10:08 pmI am loving this pizza! my girls would love this! Thanks for sharing on the sunday showcase – can't wait to see what you'll share this week.
Bern
http://momto2poshlildivas.blogspot.com/search/label/Sunday%20Showcase
magi says
January 9, 2012 at 3:35 amGreat explanation, thanks for the posting!
Cooking Equipment
Carolyn Wilhelm says
May 27, 2012 at 8:23 amOh, I love OWLS, and this is just such a WONDERFUL post! Thank you so much, what a fun and educational idea. Carolyn