written by Jenny Limburg, Early 3s teacher
Cooking is a messy and delicious activity, especially when done with children helping along the way. Whether its slicing fruits, chopping vegetables, or mixing ingredients, the children love to prepare and eat food. When I read the quote, “First we eat, then we do everything else” by M. F. K. Fisher, I felt it really described what happens daily in our classroom. If food is involved the children seem to be in a race to get the most before their classmates. First they eat, and then they are off to conquer the world.
Thanks to generous parent donations this week we had an abundance of colorful fruits and vegetables in every color of the rainbow. We read Eating The Alphabet, Worms for Lunch and our beloved The Big Hungry Bear and while looking at colorful pictures recognized many of the ones we had in hand. For the first week of our study we made a rainbow pizza using onions, carrots, tomato sauce, zucchini, and onions. The children experienced chopping veggies using kid-safe knifes. Our end creation was a beautiful and colorful pizza that was as delicious as it was pretty. This week we focused on fruit. Yesterday we cut fruit and blended it to make a fruit smoothie. Today we made a delicious and beautiful rainbow shaped cookie topped with colorful fruit.
Food exploration will continue to be part of our daily activities as we plant and care for our garden in the next few weeks. We’ll continue to have cooking projects on a weekly basis as we continue to learn how food nourishes our bodies, provides comfort, and can symbolize love and security.