Playing with kitchen equipment is an excellent way to stimulate young children's knowledge of food preparation while developing fine motor skills. It also enables them to label familiar objects and learn about the various uses that can be made of them. Use the Birth to Three Matters framework to guide your plannning and see how the simplest resources are the most effective in engaging children's attention and interest.
Going back to basics is an excellent way of helping young children gain the range of life skills that we want them to have. But for most parents and early years practitioners it is all too easy to ignore practical tools that we use everyday. Instead, it seems simpler to buy all sorts of plastic toys that mimic real utensils.
It is useful to remember that using real objects and equipment in a nursery context enables children to replicate these good experiences at home because the same resources are accessible to them there. The role of the early years practitioner is also to enable parents to enjoy playing with their children at home and to use simple equipment that supports investigation and learning.
A strong child
To build independence and self-confidence, children need to feel at ease about helping themselves to food and drink. They also need to learn a range of life skills related to preparing and serving food, as well as clearing up after eating.
* Ensure you provide a little table in a quiet corner where children can sit and help themselves to water from a jug. Two-year-olds value peace and quiet and like the freedom to pour themselves a drink when they want one.
* Create an area in your nursery where children can practise fine motor skills using kitchen utensils. In Montessori terms this facility is called 'practical life'. Set out a range of trays on low-level shelves, with each tray containing a challenging task. The aim is to make choices about what tray to play with and to replace each tray when each task is completed.
For example, one task may be pouring water or dried rice from a small jug into four small cups; a second may be using a ladle to transfer dried rice or split peas from one dish to another; and a third may be using sugar tongs to transfer kumquats from one plate to another. Make up your own challenges using this kind of familiar tools.
* Have high expectations of children to set the tables for dinner, serve themselves from central platters and clear and wash the tables at the end of meals. You could create a rota for each mealtime so that children can see when it is their turn to help. This creates a sense of responsibility in children, building confidence and respect for participating in the social organisation of the nursery.
A skilful communicator
It is easy to assume that children know the names of kitchen equipment and can describe the food that they enjoy and eat regularly. However, as so many families do not cook food from fresh ingredients nowadays, children do not learn to recognise or label food or kitchen utensils.
* Create displays with posters and leaflets explaining types of food and the equipment used for preparing it.
* Make interactive displays for children so that they engage in conversation about cooking and eating. For example, set up a play kitchen, shop or cafe in which children take roles in selling and buying, cooking and eating.
* Read stories and sing songs associated with preparing and eating food.
* Make shopping lists and follow recipes for cooking simple dishes.
* Use kitchen utensils in different parts of the nursery to extend children's use and understanding of how tools can be used in different ways. A whisk can be used to whip up bubbles in a basin of water with washing-up liquid added, and colanders can be used to sieve out small hidden shells and other treasures in the sand tray.
* Embed good habits by naming the tools and encouraging children to use a wide vocabulary to describe the effect the tools have on substances and materials.
A competent learner
Children need a substantial range of experience and challenges to become imaginative and creative beings. Use kitchen equipment to feed their hunger for knowledge and understanding about how things work.
* Create treasure baskets of tools: sieves, lemon squeezers, safe tin openers, metal and wooden spoons, garlic crushers, measuring cups, egg cups, tea cosies, sugar tongs, pastry cutters, rolling pins and so on.
Children like to handle these things and explore how they feel and work. A supportive adult should name the objects, ask open-ended questions and invite children to think imaginatively about how the utensils could be used.
* Create regular opportunities for children to prepare food and cook.
Children need to learn the names of fruits and vegetables and to recognise the differences and similarities between them. Always make sure that you protect those who may have allergies to certain foods. Compare colours, sizes and shapes and the contrasts between external surfaces and internal contents.
Extend children's interest in learning about food by having tasting sessions of exotic and unfamiliar examples of food from different parts of the world. Plan mealtimes that enable children to sample new foods and to comment about whether they have enjoyed them or not. In sensitively supported environments, help children use more dangerous kitchen equipment such as knives so that they learn the importance of safety and handling equipment with care.
* Provide reference books and information posters that encourage children to explore, compare and contrast foods grown and eaten around the world. It is essential that adults support children in focused and purposeful ways to learn and retain useful, correct information. To achieve this, adults themselves need to research and know about the subject.
A healthy child
Learning to cook and and enjoy healthy food is an essential part of this aspect of development. It is also important for children to understand the process of growing and producing healthy food.
* Good health and well-being are fostered by encouraging children to take part in digging and planting vegetables and fruit. All through the year they can care for growing things, and learn to value the effects of changing weather and temperatures on the plants that they grow. Use planting areas outdoors as a physical activity to develop large muscle control and to engage children in active learning. Many of the safety measures for digging, planting and caring for plants are similar to those that children need to follow when they clean, chop, grate and cook food.
Make children aware of simple safety rules when they prepare and cook food
* Teach them to wash their hands before they begin and teach them that utensils need to be clean and replaced if they drop them on the floor.
* Encourage children to wear aprons and roll up their sleeves to protect their clothes and to avoid contaminating food.
* Make sure that each child has access to their own tools, chopping board and bowls so that there is no likelihood of quarrels about whose turn it is to stir or chop.
* Ensure that children are fully engaged in the experience, so work with them in small groups of two or three and give them undivided support and attention.
* Encourage the children to be fully aware of the dangers of hot surfaces and objects and ovens, and make sure that adults working with them follow safety procedures, acting as sensible role models at all times.
Outcomes for children
It is important for children to learn to use kitchen equipment with expertise and confidence. A well-planned curriculum will ensure that children gain fine motor skills and culinary knowledge that will support progress in all aspects of development. The benefits for children are self-evident, and the positive outcomes for parents and carers at home are also considerable. Stimulating children's learning and involving parents in supporting the acquisition of life skills at home will help consolidate family relationships and ensure that essential survival skills are promoted successfully. NW