One of the most fun and enjoyable activities that always seems to please is cooking with children. A few reasons why I love it:
- Cooking incorporates math into a real-life application. Fractions practice! Doubling a recipe or cutting it in half? Time to multiply and divide fractions in a real-world situation.
- It integrates across the curriculum. Language, geography, science, math, and history all have tie-ins to cooking. Be creative! Some of the most memorable cooking projects we’ve done in the classroom include:
- making pies for Pi Day (3.14 ~ March 14)
- layers of the earth cupcakes
- Mother’s Day tea snacks (sandwiches, baked goods)
- solar oven cooking
- soup in a jar (or cookies in a jar) holiday gifts – more prep work than cooking, but still get to practice lots of skills
- It gives children practical life experience. I was surprised to find out how many of my students don’t get an opportunity to cook at home.
- Kids love eating their creations. Whatever you create (usually) tastes better if you make it yourself! 🙂
- It’s fun.
- As an added bonus, there’s more practical life skill-building to be had when it’s time to clean up!
There are so many reasons to cook with children.
