Cooking to help development and learning: Making pizza for lunch

Thursday 20th September

Cooking is a fabulous way to help children learn basic culinary skills while helping them to absorb language, recognise words and symbols and practice measurement and number skills.

Spending time cooking new recipes supports children to develop a positive connection to all different types of foods including fruits and vegetables. Forming a positive experience with fresh foods is 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. Our children particularly enjoy 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 with fine motor skills, eye hand coordination, and even early concepts of math and science. Today’s experience provided the children with opportunities to meal plan, look for recipes and share ideas on why and how to make meals healthier for us all. We were able to take greater responsibility for our own health and wellbeing by making pizzas for lunch time.

To begin, the educators presented the ingredients in their raw form and had all the necessary equipment and ingredients prepped and available for viewing. We read the recipe out aloud, discussing each step along the way as well as discussing rules and safety considerations when handling knives to look after our hands. We also made sure to emphasise what is hot and what is not safe to touch. At times when it was unsafe for direct involvement, our ‘Pre-kinder cooks’ were watching from a safe position close to the action.

After the children participated in slicing and dicing the spinach, capsicum, tomato and mushrooms, the children had a go at spreading tomato puree onto pieces of pre-made pizza dough. The fun part was placing all of the ingredients evenly onto the base and then sprinkling the cheese over to finish.

As we prepared our lunch, we exchanged dialogue and talked about the flavours we could taste in the dish. Is it salty, spicy, sugary? What noises do you hear when chopping, squeezing, and hearing the cheese melt in the oven? What does the dough feel like when you have cooked it? How does the food smell before and after you cook it? Is the colour different when cooked?

“The vegetables taste hard, soft when you put it in the oven.” Said Sophie. “You melt the cheese in the oven, make it gluey.” Said Isabel. “I hear the chop chop chop.” Replied Michael. “It feels cold.” Said Olivia J as she handled the cold pizza dough.

The best part of the experience of course was digging our teeth into our freshly made pizzas. “We made this pizza. We eat it for lunch.” Said Frankie proudly.