Last week we had some tasty vegetables provided to us from The Children’s Kitchen. A city-wide project here in Bristol that focuses on encouraging children to explore, cook and eat fresh food. The children chose to investigate spring onions, mushrooms, lettuce and broccoli. They chopped up their chosen vegetables and we decided we should stir-fry them for snack! We provided them with a selection of herbs and spices to smell and encouraged them to choose which ones they would like to add to their stir-fry. This interaction with their food prompted a lot of tasting, smelling and talk; there were discussions about favourite vegetables, what the spices smelt like, and what they could hear as the oil sizzled in the pan, we also used a lot of mathematical language such as big, small more or less.
This week, following on from the interest in cooking on the hot plate inside, we extended this learning experience to cooking outside in the garden on a fire pit! This involvement further expands the children’s experiences and understanding of cooking; for some of our children, this is their first time cooking on an outdoor fire. Using the firepit to toast bread was a simple yet effective way to introduce the children to learning how to manage their own risks as well as learning about the importance of fire safety. Sitting and eating their toast together around the fire allowed the children a quiet and calm moment in their otherwise busy day.
These interactions with different ways of cooking and preparing their own food are a valuable way of promoting fine motor skill development and confidence in themselves and their own abilities, and help to build a healthy relationship with food, all of which benefits the children as they grow and develop.
