Cooking is a great tool to use to help teach preschoolers a number of different things. It uses all five senses and the senses are a gateway to the brain which enhances learning. Using cooking lesson plans for preschoolers also helps children to feel 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 a 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 about cooking lesson plans for preschoolers, you can also think about using it as a science lesson as well. Cooking and science both involve chemical changes, problem solving and plant and animal products. In addition cooking with preschoolers also helps them to learn small motor skills like pouring, stirring and mixing, social skills like cooperation, taking turns and group projects, plus, health and nutrition.
When you are creating cooking lesson plans for preschoolers, remember to use a recipe that is simple and involves only a few ingredients. Children don’t like to wait so choose recipes that they can eat immediately. Cooking lesson plans for preschoolers does not always need to involve actually cooking the food. It simply could be a recipe that can be easily prepared. One very easy recipe is something that most of use has had as a child; Ants on a Log. This is a great recipe for preschoolers because it simply involves spreading peanut butter on a piece of celery (which can be pre-cut by you in advance), then adding raisins to the top of the peanut butter. It is a recipe that is easy to make and is healthy as well. Just be sure that the children who are preparing and eating any recipe are not allergic to the ingredients you plan on using.
Another thing that you should do when you are creating cooking lesson plans for preschoolers is to make a large chart of all the ingredients and instruments that will be used in the recipe. Use symbols in addition to the words. For instance, draw an apple on the chart with the word apple next to it and the number in front of it of how many apples you will need in the recipe. Plus, don’t forget to let the children do most of the work. Allow them to make mistakes and be messy. This is another reason why the recipes you choose should be easy enough for a preschooler to do. Many recipes call for grownup help such as dealing with an oven or using sharp knives however, if you cut the ingredients before hand 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 so much fun cooking. It is a pathway to learning self confidence, allows them to be adventurous in tasting different things and incorporates many other skills within the curriculum. Creating cooking lesson plans for preschoolers is fun and easy and worth doing.
