Who Cooks?
At Babies and Toddlers; we mix, blend and play with food stuffs – we make gloop, play dough and all sorts of exciting textures, but we don’t ‘cook’ as such with the children. However, at preschool, 2 – 3 times a week we do have cooking activities.
What do we cook?
We cook savoury and sweet dishes with the children as activities. We have a very committed healthy eating policy at the nursery, and so when we select recipes to cook with the children, we try hard to make sure these are healthy, nutritious, and inline with allergy requirements of the children who attend. We always try to select the healthiest ingredients, such as wholemeal flour, we steer clear of sugar, and when we really really need it for a recipe we are choosing, we only ever use brown sugar! Cooking in this way gives children the opportunity to experience weighing, mixing, portioning and to develop an understand of how food is made, all the way through from early preparation to the end cooked products.
Please click on our recipes page to see a list of what we actually make!
Why do we cook with the children?
Spending time in the kitchen and cooking new recipes helps children to develop a positive connection to all different types of foods including fruits and vegetables. Forming a positive experience with fresh foods is so important because healthy foods are the foundation for good nutrition. Children will also learn basic cooking skills that they can use for the rest of their lives.
Children learn by touching, tasting, feeling, smelling, and listening. They love activities in the kitchen because they can use all their senses.
Cooking with children provides practical experience with many essential skills such as reading, following directions, and measuring. Getting involved in cooking helps to develop fine motor skills, eye hand coordination, and even early concepts of math and science.
Developing early maths skills
Doubling a recipe requires addition (or multiplication) skills, halving it requires division, and recipe fractions like 1/2 cup and 3/4 teaspoon bring math applications into the kitchen
Comprehension
We always bring a printed copy of the recipe, and we follow it with the children. This helps to introduce them to reading, and following instructions. At Rainbow, from an early age – we want children to understand that text carries meaning! Reading and understanding step-by-step directions, adding ingredients in sequence, and techniques such as folding and blending, are all important components to yielding the finished food product.
Real Life Science
Cooking is a science experiment. Too much baking powder, not enough flour, or the wrong timing and you’re likely to have a flop on your hands. Cooking provides an opportunity for children to get hands-on experience with basic science, and gives Rainbow staff an excellent opportunity to introduce these concepts
Self-Esteem
Cooking allows children to get instant feedback, which helps them learn and grow in self-knowledge. Learning a new skill, such as baking or cooking, is proven to help school children with healthy self-esteem development. At Rainbow we believe in planting the seeds for success!
Communication
A relaxed atmosphere in the kitchen offers an opportunity to talk, about anything! Our staff take advantage of this, especially to support language development in English and Hebrew. Cooking at Rainbow – is always ‘talk’ heavy!
Life Skills
Cooking is a life skill, much like driving a car, learning to read, or swimming. As children grow and get closer to adulthood, the job of feeding becomes theirs. Starting to cook at a young age lays the foundation for lifelong healthy eating habits.
Cooking helps with:
- Bonding experience
- Creates opportunity to discuss the senses (taste, sight, smell, touch)
- Boosts self-esteem by accomplishing tasks that contribute to the whole nursery
- Help children understand life skills and food safety practices
- Uses basic math skills
- Allows scientific observation when foods change form
- Promotes practicing how to follow directions
- Provides opportunity to discuss how healthy foods create a healthy body
- Encourages creativity
- Improve cultural awareness
How do we cook with the children?
Sometimes we focus on turn taking, where we make two or three large batches of the recipe, and all children help by taking turns with mixing, pouring, separating and adding things to the recipe! Other times, all children will have their own set of bowls, mixing materials and ingredients, which focuses more on individual creations and develops creativity in cooking!
Rainbow Cooking Rules!