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Just ask anyone who has cooked anything recently and they will tell you that the kitchen is an ideal place to reinforce what our children are learning in school.  Measuring, estimating and counting reinforce math skills.  Predicting, observing and causing chemical/physical changes in food are the fodder of scientific learning.  Tasting and preparing foods from around the globe are an ideal way to learn about other cultures.  And cooking with healthy and seasonal ingredients models healthy eating, which we certainly need to reinforce more and more in our growing country (and by growing, I mean in girth!).

I thought I’d share some tips for cooking with children in the classroom.  It is a fun activity and is a fantastic teaching method for kids who learn by doing.  Some of these tips are obvious to many of you, but are worth mentioning for the safety and health of our students.

Cleanliness:

• Before starting any cooking activity with your students, model good hand washing techniques.  Be sure to show the children how you not only wash your palms , but also between your fingers, and the backs of your hands.  It’s also good to show them how to “scritch scratch” the soap on your palms with the tips of your fingers to clean under your finger nails.  Who knows what has been gathering under there…
• If you have long hair, tie it back.  Nobody likes strands of hair in their food.
• If anyone touches his face or hair, gently remind them to wash their hands again.  Younger kids need frequent reminding since they seem to adore scratching the insides of their noses!
• Have clean and dry dish towels and dish soap at the ready.
• Have two scrubbies handy – one for washing dishes with soap; the other for scrubbing vegetables (be sure to keep this one soap-free!)

Safety:

• Have two clean and DRY pot holders in a convenient location
• Depending on the age of your students, you might want to use blue painter’s tape to make a “safety zone” around an electric skillet, burner, oven or stove.  Students should stay on the outside of the taped area unless they are supervised by an adult and are actively stirring the cooking food.
• If you are using knives in your class, be sure to wash them immediately after use and return them to their safe storage location.  Knives can easily get lost under soapy water in the sink and can cut unsuspecting dish washers.
• Always carry knives at your side with the tip pointing towards the floor.
• Before cutting rounded objects, such as potatoes, carrots or zucchini, give the food a flat edge so that the food doesn’t roll around on the cutting board.  Do this by cutting a small slice from one side of the food so that it can lie flat on your work surface.

Teaching:

• Try to include every student – this may mean giving each student a small task.  Tasks can include: reading the recipe aloud, checking to be sure that you have included all of the ingredients, washing produce or dishes, drying dishes, measuring, stirring or helping another student.
• Encourage all of the students to taste the food.  If they are hesitant, don’t force them, but remind them that they should taste the results of their hard work.  If they are fairly certain that they won’t like the food, we encourage them to take a “No, thank you.”  bite.  Remember that forcing the issue can lead to issues about food later in life – and we want food to be associated with positive memories.