Cooking in the early years is a great, fun experience which offers a wealth of learning and development. One cooking activity is able to promote all seven areas of the early years foundation stage and because children enjoy the experience so much they are not even aware they are learning about numbers or developing skills. As well as cooking developing all seven areas it is a sensory experience engaging often all five sense making it a more memorable experience and truly engaging the children in the early years. Cooking also gives children knowledge about food, where it comes from and what is healthy and unhealthy. As a Nursery these are all important skills we give to children in order to encourage them to make the food choices. It is also gives them valuable self help skills and learn some delicious recipes along the way which they can share with their parents.

At Creative Kids Academy, this is how we get the most out of cooking in our kids to help many areas of their development; we

• Allow the children to do as much as they can for themselves
• Promote good hygiene before beginning such as cleaning tables and washing hands
• Encourage the children to look at the ingredients and think about what they might be cooking
• Encourage the children to name the ingredients and discuss where it has come from or how it grows
• Make simple recipe cards containing small numbers and easy to measure units such as 1cup
• Encourage the children to weigh out their own ingredients
• Teach them skills such as how to cut safely or how to crack an egg
• Talk about what is happening as you mix the ingredients together – Use scientific language with the older children such as solid and liquid
• Talk about the textures and smells
• Be supportive and allow the children to explore, actively learn and critically think for themselves
• Talk about healthy and unhealthy choices as you cook
• Encourage the children to share, work as a team and problem solve a long the way.

How Cooking Can Help Preschoolers: Bringing kids into the kitchen can be good for them in a number of ways. Cooking can help:

• Build basic skills: Help build basic math skills by doing something as simple as counting eggs or pouring water into a measuring cup. We ask questions like;  what comes first, second, and third or count together as you spoon dough onto a cookie sheet thereby introducing  new words to their vocabulary and promote literacy.
• Encourage an adventurous palate: Preschoolers are picky eaters, and introducing them to cooking can help get them to open up to new tastes. When your 3-year-old plays chef, she might sample dishes she wouldn’t try if you just served them to her. So we encourage kids to taste new ingredients we are working with and talk about what they like and how healthy foods make a body grow.
• Help young kids explore with their senses: Kids learn by exploring with their senses and the kitchen is an ideal place to do that. As they listen to the whir of the mixer, pound dough and watch it rise, smell it baking in the oven, and finally taste the warm bread/ food fresh from the oven. If it smells good, looks appealing, and is easy to eat they may just be willing to try it!
• Boost confidence: Preschoolers love to show what they can do and working in the kitchen provides opportunities to gain a sense of accomplishment. As they helped assemble the pizza, we let them know that their help was important, and often name the pizza, cake or another dish after them. Serve “Fatima’s Pizza” or “Hamad’s Salad”.
• Fine Motor Development: Cooking activities are packed with opportunities to develop fine motor skills Children strengthen their fingers and develop coordination and control as they learn to peel, dice, stir, spread, break and slice.

We get the kids involved as much as possible. Young kids     could “help” you chop vegetables with a small plastic knives, or mix the dough and more Toddlers may just pretend to help you, but this kind of pretend play is just as important for their learning.