Involve your kids in cooking for a wonderful multi-sensory experience!
We recently spent a morning exploring different types of fruit. With that fruit, we created a delicious rainbow fruit salad. What we learned is that cooking in the classroom is about so much more than just measuring, slicing, and pouring. It can be a multi-sensory experience…
Introduce a Story
To begin our morning, we read a delightful story called “End of the Rainbow Fruit Salad.” It is a simple book that explores both colors and numbers, as well as many different types of fruit. Be sure to stick around because tomorrow we will be giving away a copy of this book!
After reading our book, we passed around a few of the fruits that were mentioned in the book…
Engage the Senses
We passed around a pineapple, grapes, bananas, strawberries, and a papaya: all fruits that were about to be used in our fruit salad. While we passed the fruit around, we talked about using all of our senses to examine the fruit. What color is the papaya? How does that prickly pineapple feel on your fingers? What do those strawberries smell like? Of course, we would see what it tastes like later. It was, not only an invitation to explore the fruit, but an opportunity to build language skills…
Passing our fruit around the circle was also an opportunity to work on sharing and turn taking. After sharing around our circle, it was time to turn all that beautiful fruit into fruit salad…
Promote Self-help Skills
We moved to our larger tables and each child had the opportunity to wash and cut the fruit we just explored. Some of our fruit required big knives, which only Mrs. Stewart and Mr. Hayden were allowed to use. The children were given plastic knives to cut the fruit into smaller, bite-sized pieces….
If you’ve ever attempted cooking with a large group of children, you will understand that it can be quite a daunting task but it isn’t one you should shy away from. Our children always love the opportunity to create their own snack. They are more eager to try a new food, when they have helped create it themselves…
Encourage Collaboration
Working side by side with other children to achieve a common goal requires cooperation and sometimes patience, while waiting for a turn…
Explore New Foods
Cooking in the classroom also allows children to explore foods in a completely new way. None of our children had ever eaten a papaya, let alone had the opportunity to cut it open and scoop out its slimy seeds…
When all of our fruit was cut, we had a very colorful and delicious rainbow fruit salad. The children had pride in knowing that they helped to prepare this yummy snack…
I was wondering when your children arrive at school, do you have free choice time or a circle time where you explain what are the happenings for the day?
Thanks. Love the fruit salad idea with book.
Hi, Diane! We have our first circle time when the children arrive at school in the morning. This typically consists of our morning greeting, story, and some sort of game or activity that relates to the book we read. After our circle time, we take a brief tour of the classroom to explain to the children what is available at each center for the day. While nearly all of the activities that we offer are open-ended, we find that the children will stay engaged at a center longer when they better understand the activity.
Thanks so much Courtney!
I agree with all you say!
crazy about all your ideas thank you.
Thank you Maria! 🙂
lettuce knives- awesome for cooking even with the smallest of 3 year olds. We have cut carrots, turnips, tomatillos, etc. They are wide but plastic with a bumpy rather than sharp edge. Really work- kiddos feel powerful.
I’m not sure I know what Lettuce Knives are Brenda! Will have to look it up!
Awesome! Just looking at how you did the activity makes me want to do it on my own. I am sure the kids loved this activity because they are able to know some fruits, its shapes and color, in a fun way. Keep it up!