cooking week 2

Cooking Investigation: Week of October 1^st, 2012

Building on last week’s investigation of ingredients we added new ingredients to our mix.  We tested the reaction between backing soda, water and vinegar.  As soon as the children saw the reaction between baking soda and vinegar they were very excited.  Lucienne and Fiona repeatedly asked, “make it fizz again?”  They seemed to like the sensation of the bubbles on their hands.  Soon they tested added more baking soda to the liquid hoping for a fizzy reaction.  Lucienne noticed, eventually the two ingredients would make a paste, which she tried to roll like the flour mixture we made last week.

 

                       

After a day of investigating with the baking soda and vinegar we explored different herbs and spices.  Ms. Szymasek shared some fresh picked herbs from her garden at home.  She brought in lemon verbatim, rosemary, spearmint and chocolate mint.  We smashed, ripped, smelled, looked and investigated these herbs in many ways.  The children really seemed to enjoy smelling the herbs.  Some of the children worked with the mortar and pestle, smashing the herbs and water into a paste.  Other children looked at the herbs under a magnifying glass.  We talked about the herbs in our garden, how we use herbs for cooking and what these ingredients smell like.  Cooking is a very sensory experience, by providing herbs they were able to see, touch, smell and listen to the sounds these ingredients made.  We did not do any tasting this week, but hopefully soon we will produce some food we can actually eat and enjoy!