In planning
our room 1 “wedding party”, the children agreed that we would need to celebrate
with a cake. A few days prior to the event, we gathered the ingredients and
tools we needed for baking. Cooking offers children a variety of learning
experiences. It's a practical way to teach kids basic life skills, as well as
academic skills involving reading, science and math. Here is what we uncovered
during the baking of our wedding cake.
We made observations and predicted change and
talked about the purpose of each ingredient. We practiced our sequencing skills and
procedural talk by following the steps of the recipe. We also explored with math as we compared the sizes
of cups and spoons and counted and measured the ingredients.
As we incorporated the ingredients we carefully used our fine motor skills to
gently pour them into the bowl.
Our senses came
into good use as we explored the ingredients. This experience encouraged us to use
our eyes, ears, nose, skin and tongue! Some of us really liked the smell of
cocoa best and others thought the vanilla smelt like cookies.
We made emotional connections with our friends
by sharing personal stories of baking, at home, with our families.
We explored the safety involved in baking; reading
the labels, being aware of our surroundings as to not spill or break anything
and using oven mitts when touching something hot coming out of the oven.
We used our
imagination and language skills to think about what our mixture reminded us of
and came up with new words to describe it. Julius called the cocoa, “brown
snow.”
Baking also
boosted our self-confidence. There was a great sense of pride and accomplishment
when the children assisted in cleaning our baking tools. It was wonderful to
see the children using their collaboration skills to ice our finished product.
So, how was the
learning from this experience made visible? Well, in one of our sensory bins we
purposefully placed the same materials we used for baking. Using these
materials with the “magic sand” (flour mixed with baby oil) the children were
observed re-creating the baking experience using newly learned, and more precise
language. For example we heard:
“Now I am going to add one cup of oil”
“I am going to add cocoa to make it chocolate.”
“First I mix it, then I put it into the oven” (procedural talk)
This was one of my favourite experiences this year. Such great learning
and such wonderful memories.
