Make a Pizza Letter Recognition Activity for Kids

Learning letters can be so difficult for young children. Learning the differences between capital and lower case letters can be even more challenging! In today’s educational climate, schools often expect Kindergarteners to enter school knowing all their lower and upper case letters. I wanted to create a fun activity that we could use over and over again to help my toddler learn and MASTER letter recognition.

We were making pizza one night and then it hit me! Pizza is an obvious shape for math (see my Pizza fractions activity here). But pizza also lends well to letter games! I thought: Why not turn a pepperoni into a shape?!? And thus, my pizza letter recognition activity was born!

When Should You Introduce Letter Recognition

Learning letter recognition is a crucial milestone in early childhood development, as it lays the foundation for reading and writing skills. Recognizing letters helps children understand that written symbols represent sounds and words, which is essential for phonemic awareness and literacy. Most children can begin learning to recognize letters between the ages of 2 and 4, with many mastering the alphabet by age 5. Introducing letters through playful activities, songs, and storytime at an early age not only supports cognitive development but also fosters a love for learning that can benefit them throughout their education.

Pepperoni Pizza Letter Matching

I created two activities to help kids develop letter recognition. If you have a young learner with little letter recognition experience, I might start them with the pepperoni pizza activity. Upper and lower case letters are printed on the cheese pizza. The child then matches the pepperoni to the correct lower or upper case letter. This exercise helps the child recognize which lower and upper case letters match.

Mini Pizza Letter Puzzles

Lay the upper case pizzas face up on a table. If you are practicing a subset of letters, you might just lay out the letters you are practicing. I find it helpful to select a few letters each week. The child will match the lower case letter on the pizza half to the top of the pizza with the upper case letter.

Recommended Order for Introducing Letters

Extensive research has been done around the best order to introduce letters to toddlers. Instead of introducing letters from a – z, I’ve found that starting with s, a, t. i, p, n allows kids to learn to form more words faster. For example, a child learning letters in the below order will eventually be able to read sat, at, in, pin, tin, sit and so on. Of course they’ll need to learn how to form the sounds for each letter in order to read words.

1. s, a, t, i, p, n
2. c, k, e, h, r
3. m, d, g, o
4. l, f, b, q, u
5. j, z, w
6. v, y, x

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Extension Activities for Pizza Letter Recognition

• Play a match game with the pizza puzzle pieces
• Put the letter game pieces in a sensory bin. I made a spaghetti sensory bin with yarn! Have the child use tweezers to lift a letter piece and match it to the pizza. This also helps the child build their fine motor skills.
• When you’re ready to learn letter sounds, have the child call out the sound of the letter before they match the lower case to upper case letter.

Other Recommended Crafts & Activities

Check out these other kids craft and activity ideas! From science and crafts, to cooking and travel, there is something for all ages to enjoy!

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