Cooking
Crazy!
13/08/12
Cooking
with children is a great experience. Children are able to explore the different
foods and learn about what food is healthy and tasty to eat and also food that isn’t
nice to eat.
I have
recently gone on a professional development about cooking with children. It was
very interesting to me as I love cooking and baking, so for me to learn how to
involve children and share my passion with them made it even more special.
Within
my centre I try to have a cooking experience with the preschool children once a
week but this is sometimes difficult as I am with the infants. The younger
children are also encouraged to participate if they want to. It is however easier
to have an experience with a small number of children both benefiting the adult
and also the children, as more learning is able to occur.
Throughout
the experience I talk to the children about what we are making, how we are
making it and what tools we are going to use. I usually start of the experience
with a measuring cup game where we fill the measuring cups (1/4, 1/2 and 1 cups)
and see how many quarter cups fit in a half a cup or full cup, or how many half
cups fit into a full cup or a quarter cup. By doing this children are able to experiment
with the equipment and also learn about fractions, volume and other mathematic
concepts (Ministry of Education, 1996).
We
then follow a recipe using a range of different technologies such as mixing
spoons, bowls, microwave, measuring cups, weights, and oven (if required).
Throughout the experience I talk to the children asking open ended questions
and questions to get them to think about what we are doing and what resources
or tools we are using.
Sometimes
I set out experiences so that children can experiment without a recipe and they
can create their own concoctions. Throughout these experiences children are
able to think for themselves and use the ingredients and tools to create whatever
they want. Usually throughout these experiences children recall previous
experiences and correct or change what they previously have done to create
something different and/or better (Gonzalez-Mena, 2008). Children are also
learning scientific concepts by experimenting with different ingredients and
observing, noticing and changing to create different results (Ministry of
Education, 2007).
Throughout these experiences
children are able to interact with their peers, myself and other teachers. I
make sure that during the learning experience there is a positive social and
learning experience so that children are able to feel comfortable within the area
to create their food alongside and with other children (Doyle and Connolly, 1980). In my personal philosophy I believe
I need to create a safe and comfortable environment where all children can feel
safe and valued. I believe that by doing this children’s cooking experiences
can be meaningful and memorable so that they can gain a passion or interest
like I have.
By providing these experiences with
children I am able to learn alongside them a large variety of knowledge from
healthy eating to mathematics and literacy. I am also able to teach them about
technology and what different tools we can use to create things. I
feel that cooking experiences aren't just about the end product and eating a
delicious cupcake or fruit salad, but it is mainly about the process and the
steps we took and the tools we used to make our creation.
It’s all about the process!!
Maybe you can try these recipes in your center:
Note: Make sure children don't sit on tables
and make sure children wash their hands and don't lick any mixture of their fingers until the process is done (I always say to them if they touch they face, pick their nose or lick their fingers they need to wash their hands straight away)
unless children are making their own individual batches, we don't want to spread germs J
Reference List
Arthur, L., Beecher, B., Dockett, S., Farmer, S., & Death, E. (2008).
Programming and planning in early
childhood settings (4th ed.). Melbourne, Australia: Harcourt
Brace.
Doyle, A., & Connolly, J. (1980). The effects of playmate familiarity on the social interactions of young children. Child Development, 51, 217-223.
Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2009). Foundations of early childhood education: Teaching children in a diverse society (4th ed.). Boston, Ma: McGraw Hill.
Doyle, A., & Connolly, J. (1980). The effects of playmate familiarity on the social interactions of young children. Child Development, 51, 217-223.
Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2009). Foundations of early childhood education: Teaching children in a diverse society (4th ed.). Boston, Ma: McGraw Hill.
Google. (2012). Children cooking. Images retrieved from https://www.google.co.nz/search?num=10&hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=677&q=children+cooking&oq=children+cooking&gs_l=img.3..0l10.733.16727.0.16959.21.17.1.2.2.1.437.3014.5j6j3j1j2.17.0...0.0...1ac.4CXCqLhkI28
MacNaughton, G., & Williams, G. (2009). Techniques for teaching young children: Choices in theory and practice
(3rd ed.). Frenchs Forrest, NSW, Australia: Pearson Prentice
Hall.
Ministry of Education. (1996). Te whāriki: He whāriki
mātauranga ngā mokopuna Aotearoa: Early childhood
curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.
Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand curriculum.
Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.
Talofa lava Ngarie, This blog really grabs my attention as experiences with children cooking are really important to me as I feel they learn so much while having fun! Children are always egger to help with cooking so it’s great to see you implementing this in your centre. I like how you strategize by using a smaller number of children to ensure maximum learning. I think it’s really great how you allow the children to use the cooking technology tools with out your assistance to get creative and experiment. I enjoyed reading how you feel the process is important and the learning children gain from these experiences instead of what the end result will be. I am sure the children love taste testing the end result no matter how the learning experience turns out. It’s important for children to learn about healthy food choices at a young age also I liked reading how you teach the children about making healthy decisions.
ReplyDeleteI found this website you might like to look at when you can I use the recipes with the children in my centre:
http://www.childrensrecipes.com/
Ngaire it was great to read your blog about cooking with the children and that great experiences you have with the children within cooking. I also love to cook with children as they really enjoy being able to explore with adding ingredients together and then watching what happens, then cooking it and being able to see the final product. I can tell from your blog that when you doing cooking with your infants that it not only brings a smile to their face but also one to yours. because of this strong interest children have with cooking there are a lot of ways you can explore this by not having to cook, like making lolly cake that is easy and the children will really enjoy eating it. Another idea could be making sushi, even though your children are young I feel you are still able to explore this path and find out what could happen. It could be sweet or savoury sushi. I really enjoyed reading your blog it gave me ideas on what I can do with my children.
ReplyDeleteNgaire, It's awesome to see you encouraging the children to explore with cooking. I love how you use lots of different science and maths while also being able to encourage social interactions. I too value the smaller group interactions and feel that it is more beneficial for the experience for the teacher and child. Cooking is so valuable within the early years and there are so many opportunities within this area. I admire that you allow the opportunity for the children to explore and experiment while also learning concepts such as big, small, full, empty and so on. I have recently made fruit kebabs with the children at my centre so not so much of a 'cooking' experience but they were able to experiment with textures, size, balance, fine motor skills, hand eye co-ordination and were able to gain the understanding of working with a sharp stick and having to problem solve about how to get the fruit on without prodding themselves. This is probably a difficult activity for such a young age but maybe you could use staws? One again i really admire how you stand back and allow for the open ended experimenting and exploration i'm sure the children and staff have alot of fun. I recently did PD on science but im sure it fits into cooking experience and they acknowledge that through these experience to have a couple of short catch phases in which you can repeat or have actions and words such as "the water is 'seperating'" while moving your hands apart from a knuckle to knuckle position.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteKia ora Ngaire,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great blog about the cooking experiences that take place in your centre. It’s great that you are able to share your passion with the children, and are providing positive learning experiences. I think it is so important that children learn about the different food groups, and are able to explore their taste buds! There are so many learning benefits from cooking, and I love how you engage the children in measuring cup games before hand, to get them familiar with measuring fractions, and volumes.
I noticed that you said you have cooking experience once a week with the preschool children. Maybe for the younger children that you work with, you could set up an activity with different types of food? This could be good for the younger children to be able to feel and smell the different foods, and explore their taste buds? For example, sweet, and sour?
Awesome work!