Friday, April 8, 2011

Cooking with young children

I have always been a big fan of cooking with little children. In fact, one of the things I LOVE most about teaching out of my home, is easy access to my kitchen. We cook at least twice a month.





From one simple recipe, children can learn about measurement, temperature, and ingredients. They work on small and large gross motor skills by pouring, mixing, scooping, and cracking eggs. They learn about the importance of staying clean. We always wash our hands before cooking, and after handling raw egg.





I also finish every cooking project with a "Yummy/Yuck" graph. The children decide if they like what we made and compare their opinions.





In our class we have made, cakes, cookies, muffins, apple sauce, smoothies, banana bread, wheat bread, jello, turkey rolls, pizza, and scrambled eggs.

If you haven't trying cooking or baking in awhile with your little ones, here is a great idea to get you started.

Bagel Pizza:

Mini bagels (cut in half)
Pizza Sauce
Mozzarella Cheese
(and of course, any other toppings you are willing to try)




Give each child a bagel half, a small dixie cup of sauce, a small amount cheese and other toppings, and a plastic spoon to spread the sauce. Bake in over at 400 degrees long enough for the cheese to melt and brown. Enjoy.

Even my two-year olds can do this and love it.

Good luck!

1 comment:

  1. Great ideas to encourage cooking :) I love the idea of adding the graph for the tasting! LOVE!

    Jamie @ hands on : as we grow

    ReplyDelete