Pizza Faces Recipe: Free Printable Recipe Card for Year 1

Pizza Faces Recipe is a free printable recipe card for Year 1 (ages 5 to 6), in Key Stage 1. Make a muffin pizza and decorate a face. It comes from the Mini Minds Hub, a growing library of free printables from Jaques of London, the British games and toy company that has been making games for families since 1795.

It is two A4 pages. Page 1 is the activity for children. Page 2 is for the grown-up: it has notes on how to use the sheet, help for children who find it hard, a stretch idea, and the answers. Print it at home or in the classroom. Black and white printing works well.

What is on the sheet

This recipe card includes numbered questions with space to answer.

A look at what children will meet:

• Wash your hands.
• Ask a grown-up to split the muffins in half.
• Spread tomato puree on each half.
• Sprinkle on the cheese.
• Use sweetcorn for eyes and pepper for a mouth.
• Add olive slices for a nose.
• Ask a grown-up to bake them until the cheese melts.
• Let them cool, then eat.

Who this is for

Year 1 (ages 5 to 6) in Key Stage 1.

Key Stage 1 covers Years 1 and 2, ages 5 to 7. Children are building secure foundations in reading, writing and number, and short playful practice at home helps those foundations stick. Use it at home, in class, on a rainy afternoon or at a family gathering.

What children practise

• Following steps
• Counting
• Making

Children follow simple steps to make a healthy snack and practise measuring and sequencing.

Learning focus and curriculum link

Subject: Cooking. Key stage: Key Stage 1. It supports the subject at this level through short, focused practice.

This sheet is a practice and play activity. It supports classroom learning and is not a replacement for it.

How to use it

1. Print both pages. Page 1 is for the child. Keep page 2 for the grown-up.
2. Ask a grown-up for help with hot things and knives. Allergens: wheat (gluten) and milk. Some toppings may contain others.
3. Work through the activity together the first time. Talk about each choice.
4. Check against the notes on page 2 and the answers.
5. Come back to it another day. Repeating a familiar activity builds confidence.

If it feels too hard

Lay out every topping in bowls before starting.

To stretch confident children

Write your own recipe for a different face.

Make it a game

Make a happy face, a sad face and a surprised face.

Tips for parents and teachers

• Wash hands and tie back long hair before you begin.
• An adult should handle anything hot or sharp.
• Check for allergies before you start.

A screen-free cooking activity for Year 1

Children spend a lot of time on screens. This is a screen-free cooking activity that needs only paper and a pencil. It works as quiet time after school, a rainy day activity, a holiday boredom buster or a calm moment before bed. Screen-free learning gives eyes a rest and gets children talking, thinking and writing by hand.

Free cooking resources for teachers

Teachers can use this recipe card as a starter, a plenary, an early finisher task, a supply teacher resource, a homework task or a table activity. It needs no preparation beyond printing. The learning focus and skills are listed above so you can match it to your planning, and page 2 gives support and stretch ideas for mixed ability groups.

Cooking ideas for parents at home

You do not need to be a teacher to use this. Read the sheet through, sit with your child for the first go and let them lead. Short bursts of ten to fifteen minutes work better than long sessions. If you are looking for free cooking worksheets for Year 1, or simple home learning for the weekend or school holidays, this is a good place to start.

Home education and tutoring

Home educators and tutors can print this as part of a wider cooking plan. It pairs well with books, outdoor play and everyday talk. Because the sheet is free and printable, you can use it again for brothers and sisters or for revision a few weeks later.

Why it helps children learn

Hands-on, paper based activities slow learning down in a good way. Children read carefully, think before they answer and see their own progress on the page. Games and challenges add a reason to keep going. That mix of play and practice is why printable activities like this are popular with parents, teachers and home educators.

Curriculum links for teachers

This sheet supports the areas below. It is matched to the published England frameworks. Please check it against your own school plan.

What children will be able to do

• I can follow recipe steps in order.
• I can measure ingredients carefully.
• I can make a healthy snack.

Check it worked

Ask these when the sheet is finished. Listen for the reasoning, not just the answer.

1. What did you do first, and what came next?
2. How did you measure your ingredients?
3. Which healthy toppings did you choose, and why?

Play it for real

Jaques of London has made games and toys since 1795. These go well with this sheet:

• Pretend Play Food Set - Wooden Fruit and Veg
• Prep & Play Kids Kitchen Set

More like this

• Fruit Kebabs Recipe
• Kids Smoothie Recipes
• Rainy Day Bake Cards
• Hot Cross Buns Easy Recipe

Same subject, one year down: Fruit Kebabs Recipe

Why cooking with a Year 1 child matters

A recipe like Pizza Faces asks a five or six year old to do real things with real food. They wash their hands. They follow steps in order. They spread, sprinkle and decorate. They wait while the cheese melts. Then they eat what they have made. That is a lot of learning in one short activity, and most children enjoy it.

The national curriculum for England includes cooking in design and technology. In Key Stage 1, pupils are taught to use the basic principles of a healthy and varied diet to prepare dishes, and to understand where food comes from. A simple recipe is a good way in. Welsh Government guidance for childcare settings also says that cooking with children is an enjoyable activity and an effective way of encouraging all children to try and eat a wide range of foods. We note that this is guidance for settings in Wales, and that it is guidance rather than a trial. It also says that recipes which involve mixing, combining and assembling, such as muffins, work well with young children.

What the research says children find hard

Most of the research on cooking with children looks at school programmes, not a single recipe at home, and the findings are modest. We say so plainly, because it would be easy to overstate them.

• The evidence is small, not large. A systematic review by researchers at the University of Leeds, published in the journal Appetite in 2024, looked at school-based cooking classes for children aged 4 to 12. It included 21 studies, 6 of them randomised. It found a small positive effect on cooking self-efficacy and a small positive effect on vegetable intake. Programmes with more than 6 hours of cooking showed the greatest effects.
• It is not clear how much cooking changes eating.

  What Year 1 children are expected to learn

  The national curriculum for England, in its Key Stage 1 programme of study for design and technology, says that pupils should be taught to:

  • design purposeful, functional, appealing products for themselves and other users based on design criteria
  • select from and use a wide range of materials and components, including construction materials, textiles and ingredients
  • evaluate their ideas and products against design criteria
  • use the basic principles of a healthy and varied diet to prepare dishes
  • understand where food comes from

  Pizza Faces works on several of these. Children select ingredients and use them to make a face. They follow a method, and the reflection questions ask them to look back at what they made. The curriculum is written for the whole of Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2), not Year 1 alone.

  Why a recipe activity can help

  A recipe is a list of steps, and the sheet asks children to follow them in order, count and make. The method on the sheet is: wash your hands, have a grown-up split the muffins, spread tomato puree, sprinkle cheese, decorate with sweetcorn, pepper and olive slices, have a grown-up bake until the cheese melts, then let them cool and eat. The jobs that need a hot oven or a knife go to the adult. The rest is for the child.

  The research does not show that this particular recipe changes what children eat. What the 2024 review supports, in a limited way, is that practical cooking can build cooking confidence. What we can fairly say is that children enjoy a face made of food, and a child who has made something is often keen to try it.

  How to get the most out of Pizza Faces

  1. Read the allergens first. The sheet says the recipe contains wheat (gluten) and milk, and some toppings may contain other allergens. Check every label, including the tomato puree and the olives. Never guess. See the questions on allergies below.
  2. Wash hands properly. The NHS advice is to wash for around 20 seconds. Wet your hands, apply enough soap, rub between the fingers, thumbs and fingertips, rinse and dry with a disposable towel.
  3. Clean the surface. Our own advice: wipe the work surface before you start. The Food Standards Agency says cleaning removes harmful bacteria, viruses and parasites that may be present on food preparation areas.
  4. Lay out the toppings in bowls. The sheet suggests this for children who find it hard. It also stops the cheese and sweetcorn going everywhere.
  5. Let the child do the safe jobs. They spread the puree, sprinkle the cheese and place the toppings. An adult splits the muffins and cuts anything that needs a knife.
  6. Keep the oven an adult job. Only an adult puts the tray in and takes it out. Welsh Government guidance says that the oven and hob are operated only by adults and that children are closely supervised if near the oven area.
  7. Let it cool, then check. The same guidance says food for tasting is temperature-tested by an adult before children taste it, to be sure it is warm, not hot. Our own advice: take care, as melted cheese can stay hot.
  8. Talk about the face. Ask the three questions at the end of the sheet. Play the happy, sad and surprised faces game from page 2.

  Common mistakes, and what to say

  • Skipping handwashing because "they are only making pizza". The NHS says to wash your hands before eating or handling food. Say: "Food hands are clean hands. Let us count to 20."
  • Licking fingers, then touching the toppings. Our own advice: say "If you lick your fingers, wash again." The Welsh guidance says hands should be washed again if they are contaminated during a session, for example by coughing or sneezing into them.
  • Letting a child help with the oven. Say: "The oven is a grown-up job, and you are the chef who decorates."
  • Tasting too soon. Say: "Hot cheese can burn your mouth. Let us wait and I will check it first."
  • Assuming everyone can eat it. Muffins contain wheat and cheese contains milk. If another child is coming for tea, ask their parent before you start.

  Why teachers matter to us

  We are a games company, and we have been making games for families since 1795. We do not think a printable replaces a teacher. A good teacher knows how to run a cooking session with a whole class, who needs a hand, who has an allergy and how to keep everyone safe. That is a skill, and it is under-rated. We were careful reading the research on teacher quality, because it comes from other subjects. A 2011 interim report for the Sutton Trust, which looked at UK pupils and gave most of its examples from maths and reading, found that for poor pupils the difference between a good and a bad teacher is a whole year's learning.

  The report also found that qualifications and experience explain less than 8% of teacher quality. It listed gender, race, teaching experience, university attended, advanced degrees, certification and tenure. A University of Bristol working paper using data on English pupils found considerable variability in teacher effectiveness. These findings are not about food or design and technology, so we do not claim they are. We use them as a reminder that good teaching is hard to spot on paper and worth recognising. These sheets are free for teachers to use as a starter, a cover lesson or a reward activity.

  A caution on the Sutton Trust figures: the report draws on US studies as well as English ones. The figure that paper credentials explain less than 8% of teacher quality comes from US research. We use them as pointers, not as a promise about any one child.

  Why education matters to us

  Learning to feed yourself is one of the most useful things a person can learn. Education is where that begins, and it widens a child's choices later. Games and play have always been a way into learning. Jaques of London has made games for families for generations, since 1795. The Mini Minds Hub carries that on with printables that are free, screen-free and made for a parent at a kitchen table as well as a teacher in a classroom.

  Pizza Faces: 20 questions and answers

  1. How long should we wash our hands before cooking?

  The NHS says around 20 seconds in total, roughly the length of singing a familiar birthday song twice.

  2. How do you wash hands properly?

  The NHS steps are: wet your hands, apply enough soap to cover them, rub your hands together, rub the back of each hand and between the fingers, grip the fingers together, rub each thumb, rub the fingertips on the palm, rinse, and dry completely with a disposable towel.

  3. When should we wash hands again?

  The NHS says to wash before and after handling raw foods, before eating or handling food, after using the toilet, after blowing your nose, sneezing or coughing, and after touching animals. Wash again if you do any of these during cooking.

  4. What is cross-contamination?

  The Food Standards Agency says it occurs when bacteria are transferred between different foods, from food to surfaces and from surfaces to food. Pizza Faces uses no raw meat, which keeps this simple.

  5. Why wipe the table first?

  The Food Standards Agency says cleaning removes harmful bacteria, viruses and parasites which may be present on food in food preparation areas.

  6. Which allergens are in Pizza Faces?

  The sheet names wheat (gluten) and milk. The Welsh Government guidance lists cereals containing gluten as wheat, barley, rye and oats, and lists milk as found in yoghurt, cream, cheese and butter. So the muffins and the cheese are the main ones.

  7. Does cooking get rid of an allergen?

  No. The Welsh guidance says that, unlike bacteria, allergens are always present in food and cannot be removed or destroyed by cooking.

  8. How do I check a label?

  Our own advice: read every label, every time, even for foods you have bought before. The Welsh guidance gives the example of a cheese sandwich and says to check the ingredients of the bread, cheese, spread and anything else in it. It says never guess. If you are not sure, do not give the food to the child.

  9. What are the signs of an allergic reaction?

  The NHS says symptoms can include hives, swelling of the lips, face and eyes, breathing difficulties and tummy pain or diarrhoea. They can affect any part of the body, and can start straight after eating or days later.

  10. When do I call 999?

  The NHS says to call 999 if, for example, your throat feels tight or you are struggling to swallow. If someone has an adrenaline auto-injector, use it straight away, then call 999 even if they seem to be getting better.

  11. Who handles the oven?

  Only an adult. Welsh Government guidance says the oven and hob are operated only by adults, that only adults carry hot foods, and that oven gloves are used to carry hot tins.

  12. How do I check the pizza is safe to taste?

  The Welsh guidance says an adult should temperature-test food with a separate clean spoon before children taste it, so it is warm and not hot. Our own advice: for a pizza, let it cool and test a small piece yourself first.

  13. What if my child gets a burn?

  The NHS says to hold the burn or scald under cool running water for 20 minutes, as soon as possible and within 3 hours. For a child under 5 you can call 111 for advice. For anything you are not sure about, seek advice.

  14. Is it safe for my child to use a knife?

  The sheet only asks an adult to split the muffins. The Welsh guidance says that children are supervised by an adult during all cooking activities, particularly when using knives or sharp equipment. For a Year 1 child, we suggest the adult does the cutting.

  15. Can my child help to wash vegetables?

  The Welsh guidance says it is preferable that adults wash raw vegetables before giving them to the children to handle. So if you use fresh pepper, an adult should wash it first.

  16. Can I use raw meat toppings?

  We do not recommend it. The Welsh guidance says it is best to use recipes that do not contain raw meat or fish, and recommends that children under 5 do not handle raw meat, fish or poultry. Your child is 5 or 6, but a simple recipe is still the safer start.

  17. What does the curriculum say about cooking?

  In Key Stage 1 design and technology, pupils should use the basic principles of a healthy and varied diet to prepare dishes and understand where food comes from.

  18. Does cooking with children make them eat more vegetables?

  The best recent review we read found a small positive effect on vegetable intake from school cooking classes for children aged 4 to 12, with the greatest effects in programmes of more than 6 hours. It also says the earlier evidence was uncertain. One pizza will not change a diet.

  19. How can I make it easier or harder?

  For an easier version, lay the toppings out in bowls first, as the sheet suggests. For a harder one, ask your child to write a recipe for a different face. The sheet also has a happy, sad and surprised faces game.

  20. Where can I find more Year 1 cooking sheets?

  See the More like this section below, or browse all Year 1 printables in the Mini Minds Hub.

  Sources

  1. Department for Education, National curriculum in England: design and technology programmes of study: gov.uk.
  2. Welsh Government, Best practice guidance: food and nutrition for childcare settings, Section 6, Food hygiene and safety (2024): gov.wales. Written for childcare settings in Wales.
  3. NHS, How to wash your hands: nhs.uk.
  4. NHS, Food allergy: nhs.uk.
  5. NHS, Burns and scalds: nhs.uk.
  6. Food Standards Agency, Why avoiding cross-contamination is important: gov.uk. Food Standards Agency, Why is cleaning important: gov.uk.
  7. Vaughan et al., University of Leeds, Appetite 195 (2024), 107238: doi.org.
  8. Sutton Trust, Improving the impact of teachers on pupil achievement in the UK, interim findings (2011): dera.ioe.ac.uk.
  9. Slater, Davies and Burgess, University of Bristol CMPO Working Paper 09/212 (2009): bristol.ac.uk.

  Frequently asked questions

  What age is Pizza Faces Recipe for?

  It is written for Year 1 (ages 5 to 6), in Key Stage 1.

  What will children practise?

  Children follow simple steps to make a healthy snack and practise measuring and sequencing.

  How do I use it?

  Ask a grown-up for help with hot things and knives. Allergens: wheat (gluten) and milk. Some toppings may contain others.

  What if it feels too hard?

  Lay out every topping in bowls before starting.

  Is it free?

  Yes. It is free to print for home and classroom use.

  Is Pizza Faces Recipe suitable for teachers to use in class?

  Yes. Teachers can use it as a starter, plenary, early finisher task, homework or table activity. It needs no preparation beyond printing.

  Is this a screen-free activity?

  Yes. It is a screen-free printable that needs only paper and a pencil, so it works well for quiet time, rainy days and school holidays.

  Can I use it for home education?

  Yes. Home educators and tutors can use it on its own or as part of a wider plan. It is free to print again for brothers, sisters or revision.

  How long does it take?

  Most children finish page 1 in 10 to 20 minutes. The notes on page 2 suggest ways to make it shorter or longer.

  Do I need to print in colour?

  No. It prints well in black and white on plain A4 paper.

  More free printables

  More Rainy Day printables | More for Key Stage 1 | More cooking printables | Free printable games | All Mini Minds Hub resources