Cooking Week 1

Cooking Investigation: Week of September 24^th, 2012

     

Since the beginning of the semester the children have shown a great interest in our dramatic play area.  They have been setting the table with plates, exploring with the food and investigating the areas as a whole.  Building on this interest we began explore with the food and cooking utensil by looking at recipes and different cooking shows.  We examined the recipes, talking about the ingredients needed to make each dish.  We also watched as chefs created elaborate dishes on our iPad.  The children showed the most interest in the utensils used for cooking and the ingredients.

This first week we explored with different ingredients, specifically flour and water.  We introduced new vocabulary such as dough, mix, measure and knead.  The children watched as the flour and watched changed into a single entity, the dough.  Some of the children mixed with their hands, while other used the spoons. They children used the measuring cups and spoons to add more ingredients to their mixture. We plan to introduce more ingredients in the next few weeks, including baking soda, vinegar and different herbs and spices.  It is our hope to eventually work towards implementing actual recipes and make dishes to share with our classmates.