Children are interested in food. What it looks like, feels like, where it comes from and what can be done with it - each aspect is a natural motivator. Learning through food offers opportunities for the development of a wide range of concepts and skills, and including work with food in the everyday provision in a setting complements the good practice already being developed.
With many nurseries growing vegetables, providing healthy menus and snacks, and involving children in the process of planting, harvesting and food preparation, healthy eating habits are being promoted that will stay with them as the children grow. Having a food area where children can choose to investigate fresh and wholesome fruit and vegetables can be a valuable addition to the continuous provision.
FOOD TECHNOLOGY AREA
Create a designated area for food exploration and preparation.
How this area is presented will depend on the space available, and whether it can be permanently in place. It doesn't have to be a large area. Working in small groups or pairs encourages productive play. Children often work better standing up at a table to cut, chop and grate.
Provide enough chopping boards to define the number of children that can be accommodated at any one time, and similarly, enough cookery equipment.
Having the role-play kitchen area close by enables links to be made from imaginative play to more complex work with real food, particularly when full-sized equipment is available. Children may make an imaginary fruit salad following work in the food area, or ask to make real vegetable soup after looking through a recipe book in the home area kitchen. Similarly, experiences in the food area may extend to the dough, sand and water areas. Observation of how children are making connections in their learning will enable adults to extend their ideas in appropriate ways.
Define the area with a screen and/or shelving to store the equipment, and add appropriate images of fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as photographs of children using the area. Include some information for parents about the learning that comes from working with food.
The general principles on which the organisation of the area is based are the same as for other areas of provision:
- The activity is available at every session and children are free to choose.
- Equipment is carefully chosen for its learning potential.
- The process is more important than the end product.
- Adults observe, support and extend rather than direct.
- Children's ideas, schemas and other interests can be extended into and drawn from other areas.
- Adults need to be able to observe children from a distance.
- Work in the area is discussed with parents, and parents' participation is encouraged.
EQUIPMENT
Equipment needs to be manageable and accessible so that valuable play is possible whether an adult is present or not. This can be stored in clear boxes, with a basic selection displayed at the beginning of the session.
Try to offer the following in sets of two, three or four, depending on the space available:
- polythene bowls
- knives suitable for young children to chop with
- forks and spoons
- chopping boards
- nail brushes for scrubbing vegetables
- assorted whisks (forks/balloon, rotary)
- graters, peelers and juicers
- wooden and metal serving spoons
- storage containers in a range of sizes and shapes
- dustpan and brush.
Access to hand-washing facilities and arrangements for children to be involved in washing up of equipment also need to be considered.
ORGANISATION
One way of organising the day-to-day running of this area is to use it at the beginning of each session to prepare the healthy snack with one or two interested children. This enables practitioners to demonstrate the safe use of equipment and reinforce hygiene rules such as washing hands before and after. Children could then access available fruit or vegetables as they choose.
In order to extend their thinking in the light of new experiences, children need the opportunity to revisit and repeat something they did yesterday. Offering food investigation on a daily basis encourages significant learning to take place.
Even though the basic material may vary from day to day, work can be developed using the same equipment. At different times, some children will be more interested in working with food than others. It's important that these children can access the area often. It is equally important that those whose interest lies elsewhere are not taken away from absorbing play to 'have their turn'. Most children will explore the area at some time, and the problem of too many children wanting to work with food doesn't arise once they know the activity is available every day.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
Some parents and perhaps staff may be apprehensive about children having access to real tools and exploring food. Individual settings need to do their own risk assessments and make sure they follow health and safety guidelines.
Informing parents of what children will be doing in the area, as well as encouraging parental participation, is essential if the messages about the educational value of work with food is to be shared. But parents are often surprised by how carefully young children use equipment once they see it, and can observe how they develop dexterity and competence with regular access and involvement.
There may be some concerns about wasted food when children are using it in this way. However, when children have free choice to explore food, most of it is finally eaten in one way or another. Or it can be passed on to pets or composted. A liquidiser or grinder can be used to transform fruit and vegetable choppings into tasty soups, dips and drinks.
INVESTIGATIONS
Try to use seasonal fruit and vegetables whenever possible. This helps children to develop ideas about the different seasons and the passing of time. There will, however, be times when practitioners may want to introduce an unusual fruit or vegetable, or demonstrate the diversity of food in different cultures and around the world. In these situations, out- of-season products may need to be sourced.
At other times, produce can be provided from the nursery garden or donated from parents' gardens or allotments. Regular weekly shopping trips with small groups of children to a local market or greengrocers will offer opportunities to look closely, smell and talk, and think about what is available and how it could be used. Shopping for specific ingredients for a planned food activity can involve looking at recipe books, writing shopping lists and considering how much things might cost.
Investigating vegetables
Settings could provide:
- a basket of one particular kind - for example, sprouts, to carefully peel off the outer layers and reveal paler and paler green leaves
- a selection of root vegetables
- broad beans, runner beans, french beans
- peas in the pod to open, sort and count
- a single cabbage, or several different kinds (kale, savoy, red)
- unusual vegetables such as kohlrabi, artichokes, fennel bulbs
- different lettuces - beautiful lollo rosso, cos, lamb's lettuce,
- little gem
- a pile of potatoes to scrub
- selections of herbs.
Children could choose to:
- handle and examine
- compare shape, size, weight, texture, colour, length
- chop and combine with other ingredients
- grate, mash, peel, scrape
- mix and stir
- feel, smell, bite, suck, taste, eat
- talk, think, ask questions.
Adults could support children in:
- making soup
- preparing salads
- steaming or baking
- making a vegetable stew
- preparing dips for raw vegetables
- making a coleslaw.
Investigating fruit
Settings could provide:
- a bowl of one particular kind of fruit, such as plums
- different examples of one type, such as apples
- a selection of different fruits
- unusual fruits such as lychees, kiwi, mango
- dried fruit, such as sultanas, currants, prunes
- a single melon
- a selection of summer berries
- a variety of tomatoes - yellow, red, orange, plum, beef, cherry
- a prickly pineapple.
Children could choose to:
- handle, examine, compare
- wash, polish, peel, scrape
- core, grate, mash, juice
- mix and stir
- cut in half, quarters, slices, chunks
- discover pips and stones
- feel, smell, suck, bite, taste and eat
- talk, think and ask questions.
Adults could help children to:
- prepare a fruit salad
- make fruit kebabs
- mix into yoghurt
- create fruit drinks
- make fresh fruit jellies
- stew and bake
- make flans, puddings and pies.
LITERATURE
Many stories, rhymes and songs make references to food, and making these available in the area can stimulate ideas or reinforce learning (see Book Box). For example, share The Gigantic Turnip and then display it next to a selection of turnips to be explored. Set up an interactive story table nearby. Use the chopped and grated turnip to make turnip stew.
Other possibilities include providing a basket of apples, pears and oranges and the picture books Orange, Pear, Apple, Bear or Oliver's Vegetables to accompany a selection from the stories. Books such as Avocado Baby and Come to Tea on Planet Zum-Zee help children to explore the idea of trying new and different foods in an amusing way.
There are a wide variety of finding-out books about fruit and vegetables, and simple recipe books and cards can all increase the potential for learning through food across the curriculum.
Simple poems such as 'Chop, chop, choppity chop,' and 'One potato, two potato' are fun to chant as children work, introducing rhythm and rhyme in an informal and enjoyable way (see Book Box).
ADULT ROLE: KEY PRACTICE POINTS- Do risk assessments and share the reasons for having a Food Technology Area with parents.
- Observe children as they interact with the resources to assess what level of support they need.
- Demonstrate how to use the equipment safely and effectively.
- Support children sensitively as they develop their skills, offering new challenges if and when appropriate.
- Encourage the children to discuss what they are doing.
- Introduce appropriate vocabulary.
- Note children's questions, comments and observations for profiles and to inform future planning.
- Observe how they are using the available food and what connections they may be making with previous experiences.
- Comment from time to time, reflecting back on what a child is doing.
- When and if appropriate, join in alongside, following the child's lead and asking open-ended questions.
LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
PSED Showing an interest through observation and participationPSED Responding to experiences, showing a range of feelings
PSED Working together as part of a group
PSED Continuing to be interested, motivated and excited to learn
C&L Listening and responding to experiences using their whole bodies and with facial expressions, gestures and expressive sounds
C&LUsing descriptive language to describe what they see, touch and do
L Enjoying books, songs and rhymes linked to food
M Comparing size, weight, shape and length
M Developing counting skills
UW Using appropriate senses to explore fruit and vegetables
UW Looking closely at similarities, differences, patterns and change
UW Showing curiosity and asking questions about why things happen
PD Developing dexterity and hand-eye co-ordination through investigations
PD Developing control and co-ordination through using a range of equipment and tools
EAD Responding in a variety of ways to what they see, hear, smell, touch and feel
EAD Enjoying songs and rhymes linked to food
EAD Representing food experiences dramatically in the home, sand and malleable areas
BOOK BOX
The Gigantic Turnip by Aleksei Tolstoy & Niamh Sharkey (Barefoot Books)Handa's Surprise by Eileen Browne (Walker books)
Oliver's Vegetables and Oliver's Fruit Salad by Vivian French and Alison Bartlett (Hodder Children's Books)
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (Puffin)
Come to Tea on Planet Zum-Zee by Tony Mitton and Guy Parker-Rees (Orchard Books)
Avocado Baby by John Burningham (Red Fox)
Orange, Pear, Apple, Bear by Emily Gravett (Campbell Books)
I Eat Fruit and I Eat Vegetables by Hannah Tofts and Rupert Horrox (Zero to Ten)
Sweet as a Strawberry - Things I Eat by Sally Smallwood (Zero to Ten)
Food Rhymes by John Foster and Carol Thompson (Oxford University Press)