Cooking with Preschoolers!
Monday is baking day and on Tuesday we eat our delicious creations for breakfast. What's on the menu you ask...our delicious banana bread and blueberry bread! Why do ordinary math when you can provide the children with some real life hands-on experiences in the kitchen. Cooking is not only fun and engaging, but it also provides opportunities for children to learn some math, science, and practice their language skills.
Math:
- In the kitchen, children get the opportunity to estimate, measure, count, classify, and recognize numbers. They get real life hand-on application experiences and a tasty meal!
- Just think about all the mathematical language and equipment used during cooking; adding, reducing, comparing, and weighing ingredients. Some real mathematical skills are being learned!
Science/Social Studies:
- Children use all their senses while cooking and what better place is there for the children to observe, ask questions, investigate, hypothesize and experiment than the kitchen.
- Cooking allows children to make predictions and learn how to safely use materials and utensils, a practical skill they will need as they experiment with other tools as they grow.
- Children can also learn about where their food comes from. As you're cooking with fruits and vegetables discuss what part of the plant they're eating and encourage the children to try some new foods.
- Children can also experiment and observe how different ingredients react when being mixed together or when their temparture changes (boiling, mixing, freezing, melting)
Language Acquisition
- Cooking is a great opportunity to model language for children in a fun environment. The kitchen is a perfect place to converse with young children. As you cook together you can introduce new vocabulary and teach the children how to follow steps in a recipe.
- Invite the children to use all of their senses. Talk about how things smell, taste, feel, sound and look. Expand on the children's comments with rich vocabulary and voice over their actions by mapping out with language how they're interacting with the food, tools, and products they are using.
When planning cooking activities with children, it is always a good rule of thumb to have all the materials ready to go. Remember cooking can get a little messy, but encourage the children to help clean after all the FUN is done!
