Making Lemons into Lemonade

Thursday 9th August,

Nothing beats the taste and tang of a good homemade, traditional lemonade for quenching a thirst. The tartness of lemon, the sweetness of sugar and fizzy bubbles make it a refreshing and easy to make drink. So why not teach the children how lemonade should really taste?

The act of creating something from scratch can assist children to learn and practice some basic math concepts and build language skills. The experience of creating their own drinks for afternoon tea helps our children to build their self-confidence and lay the foundation for other learning. Through a little flexibility and some simple prep work, we were able to set up a lemonade making experience. We used eight lemons, half a cup of sugar, half a cup of cold water, half a cup of hot water (supervised) and a few cubes of ice.

Our children learnt basic math skills by doing something as simple as counting, measuring or pouring water into a cup. We asked what comes first, second, and third and we would count the lemons together as we squeezed each one into the juicer. We printed out a recipe for the children to read together, introducing new words to our children's vocabulary and promoting literacy. We find that following steps in the recipe can work on listening skills. 

Sometimes children can be selective in what they choose to consume, however encouraging them to partake in making their own food or drink opens them up to new tastes. When our children play 'chef', they might sample things that they wouldn't try if we simply serve them. The educators encouraged our children to taste the ingredients we were working with and we discussed what they like and how lemons grow. We encouraged the children to explore with their senses by straining, pouring, squeezing and tasting the tartness of the lemons and the sweetness of the sugar. 

It was observed that the children gained a sense of accomplishment through what they were doing, no matter what the outcome was. The educators provided much praise for their effort and assistance. This experience will set our children up for more complex culinary jobs in the future as they develop the skills, attention span and interest to follow recipes.