Cooking Week 7

Cooking Investigation: Week of November 5th, 2012

This week we explored a hodge-podge of different things.  We started off the week revisiting our original ingredient exploration of flour and water.  As Ms. Camardese observed the children she quickly realized they were not making the connection between the flour and water turning into dough.  The children seemed to understand there were three entities, flour, water and then dough but they seemed confused about how the mixing led to the dough.  To help get this idea across we mixed fruit into fruit cups, then used the cups to make smoothies.  The idea behind this was the children could still see the single ingredients as one combined entity.  Then the combined mixture would become the smoothie.  This was also an opportunity to practice our utensil using skills; the children helped cut the fruit using plastic knives of course.  Making the fruit cups and then having smoothies for snack was a treat the children really enjoyed.  As Ms. Camardese mixed the smoothies in the blender she asked the children, “what is happening to the fruit?”  Fiona said, “it going round and round.”  While examining the finished smoothie, Ms. Camardese asked, “where did the fruit go?”  Jack said,” it all in there!”  Building on the idea of eating together and sharing food, we had the smoothies for snack then we shared out left overs with the other teachers in the building.  The children enjoyed sharing the food, visiting the other rooms and eating together.  For our final day of exploration we practiced our table setting skills.  The children have been helping set the table at snack, building on the idea of eating and cooking together.  We watched videos of other people setting the table then practiced using real dishes, utensils and napkins.  You’ll see our finished table at curriculum night this week!

Over the next week we plan to prep for curriculum night.  We will be using the ideas we have learned about recipes, utensil use, table setting and group meals to prepare a tasty snack for our visitors on curriculum night.  Make sure you stop by to see what we have prepared!