In my centre children have lots of opportunities to participate in fun and educational cooking activities. As seen in the pictures below, a few children are making pancakes. In this process they have the opportunity to learn to work collaboratively with me and other children. They learn to follow the recipe, identify ingredients, measure and mix them together. They also used utensils such as spoons, spatulas, measuring cups and electric fry pan to cook pancakes. Cooking pancake involves using all of the five senses, learning to work with others and taking turns.
From this experience I can see that when children participate in hands on cooking activity they are learning basic skills in an interesting way. They learn to use the resources provided to make pancakes in a creative way. Some skills that they acquire are learning about shapes, measuring, sorting, colors, adding, subtracting and numbers. This links to Te Whāriki that highlights that children should have experiences with some of the technology and resources for mathematics, reading and writing (Ministry of Education, 1996). In this experience children were able to observe materials change from one state to another and ask question such as why is the mixture bubbling in the fry pan. Cooking also enhances vocabulary development, eye-hand coordination, patience and self- reliance. Children also learn an important life skill that will benefit them for the rest of their life. Most of all they love eating what they cooked.
Smorti (1999) points out that “process cooking is a technological activity or system developed, used and adapted by early childhood services to meet children’s learning needs” (p.6). Cooking is a good way of encouraging healthy eating and building nutrition knowledge. It would be a good idea to involve parents so they can bring different cooking experiences from their culture.
To extend children’s interest in cooking I could introduce gadgets such as the blender, food processer, timers and rolling pins and also provide new recipes. Well technology certainly has changed a great deal of the cooking and it’s changing maybe even more so now. I believe that it is important for children to understand about this change and I could talk about the technology of cooking and how technology changes the way we cook — from fire to modern stoves and microwaves. We could also look at the web and how it's changed the way people cook; it has really opened up new ways of sharing recipes and food cultures. Children can benefit by watching videos of cooking lessons because a lot of children are visual learners. Technology in cooking can make learning easier for children with special needs for example if someone is using only one hand they will find it difficult to open a can with manual can opener but will be successful with a electric opener.
Cooking inspires children to be hands-on in the kitchen. It teaches important life skills, offers confidence in the kitchen and provides valuable information about sourcing ingredients, reading labels, understanding nutritional values and offers sound food preparation. Children will learn how to use a variety of cooking accessories and equipment with skill and care. They will experience to create culinary delights with flair and imagination.
References
Ministry of Education. (1996). Te whāriki, he whaariki mātauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.
Smorti, S. (1999) Technology in Early Childhood. Early Children, No. 19 Autumn 1999.
Namaste Raja
ReplyDeleteYou are right when you say cooking is a fun activity, whenever we do cooking at my centre all the children want to have a turn. You highlighted all the learning that occurs when children are given the opportunity to participate in cooking activities/experiences. As I was reading your blog you had me thinking about the different areas you were discussing. I had not thought about how difficult it would be for some to try and open a can with a manual can opener if they only have one hand. You highlighted how with the use of an electric can opener someone’s life can be made easier and this can increase their independence. I noticed in the photo how you were close at hand when a child was watching and waiting near the electric frying pan. Supervision and safety is always important especially where heat and electricity are concerned. At my centre we do not always use the electric fry pan with the children as we are a mixed age centre and sometimes we have infants who may want to join in. You make some great suggestions on how to extend the children’s learning. Your suggestion for cooking videos is great as you say some children are visual learners an as educators we need to remember the different ways children learn. Involving parents from different cultures is a wonderful idea and this is one area that I am endeavouring to develop. I had not thought about using the internet to look at how cooking has changed. Would you talk to the children about electricity? I was wondering if you had the pancakes for morning or afternoon tea and if you put anything like jam or cream on the pancakes. What other exciting things do you cook with the children? Perhaps you could ask the children to bring in their favourite recipes.
“Transformation of energy, information and materials” are noted as being associated with technology and these words gave me a different perspective of technology in relation to cooking (Ministry of Education, 2007). Perhaps you could have a look at the area of technology within the New Zealand Curriculum framework. I found this very informative and it breaks technology into three strands: Technological Practice, Technological Knowledge and Nature of technology.
Ministry of Education, (2007). The New Zealand curriculum for English-medium
and learning in years 1-13. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.