Pizza Restaurant Dramatic Play

"Going out for lunch" at Whole Foods

It's not delivery, it's dramatic play! Welcome the our area's first kosher pizza joint! Living in an area with no kosher restaurants means that eating out is pretty much an experience my family has only by bringing our own foods or consuming packaged kosher items in public dining areas or when we are vacationing at or visiting a location with kosher eateries. In fact, S and Y had never been to a pizza restaurant at all until earlier this year! We've been out for pizza a total of two times ever and S has recently been asking about having a pizza restaurant dramatic play center at home. Both of the boys have been particularly interested in pizza baking and pizza eating since we got our hands on a copy of Melissa Iwai's Pizza Day and began growing our own pizza garden.
Our play area had been set up as an ice cream shop for a while around Shavuos and that was so much fun that I moved a portion of the toys to the kids' sandbox out back. Meanwhile, inside, I gathered some materials and resources from Pocket of Preschool's Pizza Restaurant Dramatic Play bundle and set up shop! This set is full of ideas and materials to print and use at home or in your classroom. I paired that along with some of my own ingenuity as I created movable and reusable parts for building, baking, eating and delivering pizzas with sauce, cheese and toppings.

We've been really building on dramatic play at home for some time now. Partly because the boys are older now and partly because I've picked up a few tips of the trade along the way, we've had extended interest in and use out of dramatic play themes and setups here. It was often a gamble at first when I would spend sometimes upward of 3 hours setting up a play theme. Sometimes the boys would engage right away. Sometimes not. Sometimes they would use things as I'd imagined; sometimes not. Sometimes they would stick with a theme for weeks, sometimes just a few days. Our ice skating rink earlier this year was a huge hit. Our Fairy Tale Land was a bit of a flop. Our pet and vet center and fire station were super successful and our Flower Shop kind of withered and wilted away after one or two days.

When you put a lot of time and effort as an adult into setting up a play activity in your home or your classroom, it can leave you scratching your head when the children involved don't take to the space as you'd imagined. Why were some of our themes successful while others were not? And how am I measuring "success" in the children's play and experience? Here are a few things to consider:

First off, what is "success?"
I look first and foremost for interest and engagement. That doesn't necessarily mean that the children are playing with the materials as I would imagine, but rather that they are playing and expanding on their own ideas. We've had some themes that were immediately inviting (usually anything new and novel has that effect) and some that even while new and novel didn't necessarily draw my kids right in. Sometimes that was a case of materials being so new and novel that the boys didn't know what they were or what to do. If you've never eaten in a restaurant, you probably won't know what a menu is for or why a table is set or how an order form is used. If you're not a pet owner, you probably haven't been to a veterinarian and perhaps you've never seen an x-ray. And even familiar themes like fairy tales and fire stations might have new ideas and materials to explore.

Join 'em. That's right, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Take your kids or students on a tour of a new play theme. Use resources like books, videos, songs, community field trips and more to introduce themes that might be new and even ones that are familiar.

S and Y are busy decorating pizza boxes to use for delivery
and takeout options in their restaurant.

Too much grownup stuff. A lot of dramatic play is pretending about the world of grown ups. Our world is fascinating to children. They spend much of their time wanting to be grown up and practicing being grown up and playing about being grown up. That said, a world of play created by grown ups alone is still a grown up world and not one that is necessarily representative of the children it was intended for. I found early on that when I spent so many hours printing, laminating, setting up and designing their play space it still lacked something and that was not their interest alone--it was their hand and participation in its design and creation. Sure, everything needs its place and space and I do have some structure around that to assist with organization, but the boys can also help decide where things "belong" and create art and props for our play together.

I still print and laminate and prepare. But I do less. If we want and need to add more, we can. Now, the boys also design and contribute to props. I printed and stapled some menus into these file folders. The boys colored in and decorated some pictures of pizza slices. S cut them out and we glued them to the front of the menus.

A little goes a long way: I used to spend a lot of time, effort and even $$$ preparing everything we could possibly imagine in our imaginary play themes before introducing it to the kids. And this is what I noticed: some things would be played with and explored right away. Some would get repeated use over time. Some would never be touched at all or merely looked at once. It seemed that when I had more out, less got used and often times, interest would wane rather quickly; not the other way around. This time I really encouraged myself to follow my own advice:

• Less is more: I have three kids and only two of them are really utilizing the materials: we don't need enough to make and serve 28 pizzas!
• Use what you have: this one is always such a challenge for me. I could buy a toy pizza set in a store or even online. Or I could make one out of laminated cardstock, felt, velcro, pipe cleaners and yarn all of which I had on hand. If you are like me and it's very tempting to run to the craft store or Dollar Tree (hey, it's only a dollar--if you buy ONE thing), the Target dollar spot (where it's rarely a dollar even IF you buy only one thing) or Amazon Prime (it can even be there in 2 hours...)...challenge yourself like I did to stick to what you have on hand or even a set budget. This time I only bought a set of cardboard pizza boxes. If I was really thrifty, I might have found a way to finagle these for free from an actual pizza restaurant, although I found that to be a bit more challenging since I can't eat in any of those establishments where I live..
• Timing is everything: Sometimes our dramatic play themes are a flop because timing is off. Our fairy tale land emerged alongside Purim and Y's birthday and an influx of other toys and treats. It was easy to overlook the play area in those days. The flower shop opened at the very end of my pregnancy with C and right before Pesach. We were so busy and I was so unable to move around a lot and engage with the boys that it's not so surprising that they played for a few days and then moved on to something else.
• Layers make the cake: I LOVE layers. Layers in cakes, layers in clothing, even layers in onions. Rather than deal with the stress and overwhelm of having "everything" set up before you start a new play theme, be OK with having it started and adding to it later. In fact, this is even a useful tactic in gauging what is interesting to your little players and what needs to be added, what could be changed or removed...
• Give it its own space: I don't just mean physical space here, though that, too, is important. But having a space and time to designate to opening up shop when you're starting a new play theme is important. You want to be able to introduce it when there's time to play and explore and when you are available to join in and support. You also want to make sure it doesn't coincide with a massive overhaul and shift in other play areas as well. Here, if I am changing up our STEAM drawers, I don't do that on the same day as changing up our dramatic play area.  I also tend to set things up that are new right before Shabbos so the boys will have plenty of time to play and explore without rushing off to an event or other activity. Alternatively, when I am changing up art or writing materials, I do NOT do this right before Shabbos or a holiday when they can't immediately make use of the area.
• Revisit or revamp: Sometimes for whatever reason, a play theme doesn't play out. In these cases, it's OK to shut it down or take it to another space. We brought the flower shop outside and introduced a pop up potting shed one afternoon. When the ice cream shop got a bit stale, we added new life to it by setting up scoops, cones, dishes and toys in the sandbox. The costumes and props of Fairy Tale Land have long since been packed and stored, but I guarantee you I'll bring them out again--probably not at the same time as I bring out a lot of blocks and materials to build castles, graggers and toys for Purim and new presents from a birthday celebrated in the same week. And even themes we've loved that are stored for now will return again for repeated play and expansion. Who knows what will become of our Ice Skating Rink by next December?

Use it or lose it: When you do shut down one play theme and store it for future use, it's a good time to take inventory. Save what you liked and what you'll use in the future. Toss/donate what you won't. I do like to save some of what the boys have created to contribute, especially since it is fun for them to look back on their old artwork at a later date. I also use a lot of my materials across a variety of play themes. The same trays we use for pizza are used for our bakery shop and small world play. Our zamboni also functions as a delivery truck. Our garden hose has also been used in a grooming shop and as a fire hose on a fire truck and even as a gas station for filling up a car. It can be useful as well to consider this if you are making purchases for a play theme.

So, if you're looking around your house and preparing to set up your own pizza restaurant, here are some things you might include:

• metal "pizza" trays with velcro dots corresponding to "slices" of laminated cardstock pizza dough 
• some toys and tools from our play kitchen for baking, mixing dough, measuring ingredients, serving, etc.
• build your own pizza set:

• dough made from laminated cardstock with a velcro dot on the bottom to attach to the tray
• yarn cheese
• felt sauce
• felt mushrooms
• felt carrots
• felt basil leaves
• pipe cleaner onions
• pipe cleaner peppers
• a sealed salt shaker with rice for Parmesan cheese--you could also include recycled spice containers

*You can create your own favorite toppings with whatever you have on hand. Felt, paper, cardboard, cardstock, pompoms, cotton balls, yarn, string, beads, recycled loose parts, etc., could all be used.

• pizza boxes for takeout/delivery
• a riding toy or toy shopping cart or cardboard box for a deliver truck
• a salad bar with a big plastic bowl, tongs and green crepe paper or tissue paper "lettuce" (pizza toppings can be added as well)
• bread or bread sticks made from salt dough or model magic
• menus printed from the set above or created by you and your kids
• order forms and clipboards
• costumes and props like aprons, chef's coats (we actually use kids' lab coats), chefs hats, potholders
• materials for writing/drawing orders
• a cash register, play money
• props for cleaning

As an extension to your activity, you might want to make and build your own actual pizza to eat at home--especially if, like us, you do not live near a real pizza shop you can eat in. We love this simple recipe for pizza dough. I use all purpose flour rather than bread flour and it freezes well if you wish to stock up or don't use it all in one sitting. I usually break it up into four equal balls. One makes a perfect individual pizza so each of the boys makes one to eat and we freeze the other two for another time. We've been able to add in some fresh herbs from the Pizza Garden as we away for the peppers and tomatoes to grow bigger and ripen.

This has been one of our more successful dramatic play themes. A good portion of that has to do with following the tips above. Overall, the boys are most eager to play when we join in their world of wonder. My husband and I are their favorite customers! S has somehow combined the words "baker" and "chef" into "cheffer," and he is the busiest and eagerest pizza cheffer I know. I'm off to go make some actual dinner and we will be back soon.

Until then...

Happy Playing!