Came across this useful infographics from cooksmarts.com on the roles kids can play in the kitchen! The pizza cooking class we did last week builds on the ‘Prepping & Chopping’ (using kid’s knife) and ‘Cooking’ (assemble pizza).
It’s important that age-appropriate activities are introduce to kids, as it impacts the level of confidence and mastery of the child in future!
Age-appropriate roles for kids in the kitchen Read More »
We started to build and emphasis on the skills that kids can learn, and the “Lets Make Pizza” class clearly embodies this.
The skills introduce – cut, knead, roll and assemble – may seems easy to an adult, but gave that to a 3/4 years old and you’ll find how ‘raw’ they are at such things. But this is the perfect age to expose them to such skills, as it helps to hone their fine motor skills. This is also the chance to introduce about knife safety, nutrition and numeracy, just to name a few. For instance, we can tell them about a balance diet and how greens are so important it is a must to be included in the pizza; we can get them to count the numbers of parts they’ve cut in a sausage, or even set a number of parts and get them to cut it!
The other advantage is it helps to reduce the barrier for picky eaters. Why? Because they play a part in the preparation process, and it becomes easier to egg them to try – just take a tiny bite – of something they have assembled and created on their own. This may not change their preference, but it’s always a good exposure to new food ingredients for them.
We also tried to reinforce the learnings through fun activities. We created a 6-sided pizza die – comprising of a sauce, ingredients like cheese, peppers, ham etc – which we get the kid to roll, with a condition that they need to get a sauce first, before they can paste the other ingredients. Sounds easy? Not so for the kids, as their motor skills does not allow them to roll the die well. BUT this is when things get funny, as a child starts to think creatively, whereby instead of rolling, he decides to ‘drop’ the die gently such that the sauce faces up! And the rest of the kids started doing the same!!! It’s great to see how kids can learn from each other so quickly!
We also prepare a busy bag for the child to bring back, where the child can create pizzas based on the order form, or parents can introduce personalised pizza, so that the child can learn about listening to instructions while having fun!
Hope this can inspire parents to introduce useful skills to their 3-4 years old! It’s never too late to start!
Let’s Make Pizza – Cut, knead, roll, assemble! Read More »
Little Cookhouse hosted our first birthday bakeout party for Leah and her invited guests last Sunday. This is our very first party event, and based on the knowledge the kids have with numbers and measurement (this is important! and we’re glad to have a few round of chats with Leah’s mummy, so that we can plan our classes according to age-appropriate skills), we decide to make this a skills-focus party for them!
What’s a bakeout without chef hats! But to decorate the chef hats, the children had to hunt for decorations in a scavenger hunt. Given the time limit, some children managed to find materials while others did not. This was the perfect opportunity for children to learn the value of sharing, and exchanging for materials that they needed but didnt find.
With hats done and aprons put on, the children were roaring to get started with the baking! Unlike regular lessons, the little chefs had to read through the recipe card and “shop” for their own ingredients from the pantry! That’s not all…. they had to work in pairs to weigh out the ingredients that they needed for the orange cake. They stirred…and they stirred….and off the orange cake goes into the oven.
With the cakes in the oven, it was time for the little chefs to bake their savory dish – PIZZA!! Who doesn’t like pizza, but did you know that pizza can also make a balanced meal. The children learnt about the Food Groups and had to include at least 1 item from each of the food groups in their pizza. We then get them to cut the ingredients, and it’s amazing to see how the characteristics of each kid manifest in this simple activity…. We see some who rush through the task producing cuts of different sizes; while others patiently cut with such precision, that every piece is of the same size and shape! It’s certainly a good way to train patience in the little one!
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