Cooking is a great tool to help teach preschoolers a number of different things. It uses the five senses and the senses are a gateway to the brain that enhances learning. Using cooking lesson plans for preschoolers also helps children to have a sense of accomplishment and independence.
There are many other parts of the curriculum that can be incorporated into a cooking lesson. Preparing a meal or snack together incorporates math into the lesson. Cooking has a lot to do with measurements, counting, and fractions. Reading can also be incorporated into cooking lesson plans for preschoolers. In addition to reading and following a recipe, children will have to decode symbols and follow a sequential order. When you are thinking of cooking lesson plans for preschoolers, you can also think of using them as a science lesson. Cooking and science involve chemical changes, problem solving, and plant and animal products. Additionally, cooking with preschoolers also helps them learn small motor skills like pouring, stirring, and mixing, social skills like cooperation, taking turns, and group projects, as well as health and nutrition.
When you are creating cooking lesson plans for preschoolers, remember to use a recipe that is simple and includes only a few ingredients. Children don’t like to wait, so choose recipes that they can eat right away. Cooking lesson plans for preschoolers don’t always have to involve actually cooking food. It could just be a recipe that can be easily made. A very easy recipe is something that the majority of use has had as a child; Ants on a log. This is a great recipe for preschoolers because it simply involves smearing peanut butter on a piece of celery (which you can pre-cut) and then adding raisins to the top of the peanut butter. It is an easy recipe to make and healthy. Just make sure the children who are preparing and eating any recipe are not allergic to the ingredients you plan to use.
Another thing to do when creating cooking lesson plans for preschoolers is to make a large chart of all the ingredients and tools that will be used in the recipe. Use symbols in addition to words. For example, draw an apple on the chart with the word apple next to it and the number in front of the number of apples you will need in the recipe. Also, don’t forget to let the children do most of the work. Let them make mistakes and get dirty. This is another reason why the recipes you choose should be easy enough for a preschooler to make. Many recipes require adult assistance, such as operating an oven or using sharp knives, however if you cut the ingredients beforehand and use recipes that don’t need to be cooked in the oven, your preschooler can be more involved in creating the recipe. .
Children of all ages have a lot of fun cooking. It is a path to learning self-confidence, it allows you to be adventurous by trying different things, and incorporates many other skills into the curriculum. Creating cooking lesson plans for preschoolers is fun, easy, and worth doing.
