written by Gabbi Horst, 1st/2nd grade teacher
There were many lessons learned during our cooking projects this week. For example, we learned that onions make your cry, you can’t taste the spinach in smoothies, and mashing food is way more fun than you’d think! We practiced safely using a knife while we cut our veggies. (No cuts or blood so I’d call that a success!) Possibly most challenging of all, we resisted the urge to sneak a little taste of our food while we were making it.
One of my favorite things to see throughout our week was the experimenting and problem solving that went on. 
While we were making smoothies, we realized we were missing an ingredient from our recipe. When we told the class about our small dilemma, they all jumped in with ideas of what we should do instead. Some suggested that we wait until tomorrow to make smoothies while others thought we should ask other classes if they had the ingredient handy. I hadn’t even thought of that! Unfortunately, no one had it so they began to devise a new plan. They concluded that we should substitute the missing ingredient for something else. And guess what, the smoothies turned out great!!
There was a lot of energy and excitement during our cooking projects this week. Whether we were elbow deep in guacamole or (im)patiently waiting to taste our final product, everyone loved contributing to our cooking projects. We learned that sometimes things go as planned, and sometime…they don’t! Nonetheless, we had fun and it was incredible to see the class work together! Plus, now you can put your kiddos to work in the kitchen to help prepare meals. 🙂