Cooking in ECSE and K-2 classroom

I love working on cooking skills in the classroom.  I am sure you are wondering.... What can you do with these little ones?  So much!!

Besides teaching basic life skills that our students will need for the rest of their lives, this is also a perfect opportunity to teach new vocabulary (ingredients, slice, mash, stir, etc.).  In addition, you can work on kitchen safety and health skills such as washing hands and proper use of a knife.  My students also use this opportunity to work on social skills as we often share our creations with school staff in the building.



 Here are just a few of the various activities you can do with your students.

Dirt/Sand
This is a great activity to start with because it does not involve anything hot.  Just lots of stirring and mashing!  We use instant pudding, chocolate cookies (usually Oreos or a knock off of Oreos), milk, and gummy worms.  If you have never made dirt before, check out this post for directions and how we did this in a K-2 room.  I have also made dirt with my preschoolers, you can see some of that by clicking here!

During ESY, we like to make sand instead of dirt.  This is an easy spin on the dirt activity using vanilla pudding, vanilla wafers cookies, and a beach umbrella.  You could also add gummy fish aka Sweedish fish.

Making Lemonade
Another simple starter activity is making lemonade.  With this activity, we work on measurement, pouring, and stirring.  If you would like to see more pictures of this activity in action check out this post. 

Kabobs
Making kabobs is a great way to also work on patterns and counting.   I like to use fruit for this activity because it is generally easier to put on sticks and kids usually like it.  I often use bananas and strawberries.  The kids need to peel the banana and cut it up.  I also have them take the stem/leaves off of the strawberries.  Depending on the group we will also cut up the strawberries.  Next, the kids count out how many of each fruit they need and make a pattern on their stick.  To see more of this activity, click here.

I have other posts about cooking that you can find by clicking on the cooking tag on the left  Be sure to follow me on Instagram and Facebook also as I often post pictures, but may not do a blog post!