Circle Time – Cooking Day Healthy Choices
Begin cooking day circle time by presenting three recipe choices (while showing illustrations, and discussing ingredients). Cookbook suggestions? The Tiny Chef: Recipes Preschoolers Love to Cook and Eat by Dr. Kendall Becherer, Forest Feast For Kids: Colorful Vegetarian Recipes That Are Simple to Make by Erin Gleeson, and The Help Yourself Cookbook for Kids: 60 Easy Plant-Based Recipes Kids Can Make to Stay Healthy and Save the Earth. Next, the pre-k chefs vote, selecting the recipe the classroom will prepare (use terms more and less when discussing classroom vote count). Another option? Graph the recipe choices using a poster board. The teacher draws simple illustrations of the three choices, and children vote by placing a sticker next to the chosen recipe creating a horizontal bar graph.
Art – Imagining our Cooking Day Designs
Next, let’s imagine our cooking day. What might our recipe look and taste like? Think about the colors, what will you include in your drawing? (Design materials include crayons, colored pencils, and markers.)
Gathering Time – Cooking Grab Bag Game, Ms. CeCe’s “We’ll Be Measuring and Stirring” Song, and her Mixing Bowl Game
After that, play the Cooking Grab Bag Game. Children feel kitchen utensils with the bag closed (measuring cup, spoons, spatula, whisk, tong) and guess items.
Then, form a circle for CeCe’s song and game! In addition? Instruments for more circle time fun! Sing CeCe’s “We’ll be Measuring and Stirring” song (the tune of “She’ll be Coming ‘Round the Mountain”). We’ll be chefs preparing our recipe! We’ll be chefs preparing our recipe. We’ll be measuring and stirring, we’ll be measuring and stirring. We’ll be chefs preparing our recipe! Yes, we will! “Measuring and Stirring” and the “Mixing Bowl” are fun companions to any cooking day activity
Next, play CeCe’s “Mixing Bowl” Game! The teacher sings the “Measuring and Stirring” song while children pass the mixing spoon behind their backs. When the teacher stops singing and playing the instrument, the child with the mixing spoon lands in the middle of the circle or the “Mixing Bowl!” The last child outside the mixing bowl wins.
In conclusion, share cooking day designs around the circle.