Learning & Development: Cooking - Stirring stuff

We are a 'Healthy School' so we already promote healthy eating with the children and their families and have many food-related activities. Staff find that participating in cooking activities is a great way for the children to access all the areas of learning (see box), so we bake together each week.

When we were approached by one of the parents to become part of her intergenerational project for Age Concern, using the medium of food and diet, it seemed the perfect way to extend the children's learning even further and develop the nursery's links with our families and the local community.

Kendal Nursery School was one of the pilot early years settings to take part in 'The Way We Were' food project. We ran workshop activities over half a term. We wrote to parents outlining the project and explaining that children would be invited to join in many interesting activities including food-themed play, baking and, of course, tasting what we make. There would also be opportunities for creative work inspired by the varied activities.

An important part of the project was to build links with the older members of our community so that children could value the contribution that they make in our lives and gain some knowledge from previous generations.

FAVOURITE FOODS

During half term Nicki Smith, a community artist and the parent who is working with Age Concern on the project, circulated a questionnaire to families with the aim of discovering their favourite foods and well-loved recipes. Questions were also included for parents, grandparents and great-grandparents on what their favourite food memories were from childhood.

These questionnaires generated a lot of discussion among the children and their families about how their eating habits had changed over the years. It provoked many happy memories, such as eating fish and chips out of newspaper and the shared treat of eating out at a restaurant or getting a takeaway. Families reminisced about enjoying a roast dinner with gravy, which remains one of the meals they love to share today.

We followed up the responses by welcoming a selection of people from Age Concern and the children's grandparents into the nursery to talk about all our favourite foods. The children baked apple cake and biscuits to share with their guests and enjoyed welcoming them to the setting, which helped to develop the children's social skills.

Our visitors brought a variety of old kitchen artefacts with them to extend the discussion about food and cooking in the past. These included sugar tongs, hand whisks, jam pans, a toasting fork, nut crackers and a stone hot water bottle. The children handled the objects, asked questions and used problem-solving skills to try to work out what the different items were used for. They had seen only electric whisks previously and were amazed that there was no button to turn the hand whisk on. The sugar tongs were also puzzling for them because they had not seen cubes of sugar before, and they couldn't imagine cuddling a hard hot water bottle when they went to bed.

The grandmothers (unfortunately there were no grandfathers) baked with us. We made jam tarts, scones and blueberry muffins. The jam pans and jam tarts also provoked an interesting discussion about jam making.

HOME COOKING

In preparation for another workshop, we asked the parents and grandparents to cook a favourite recipe with their children at home and bring it in to the nursery to share with everyone. We got an amazing spread of food to sample and the children tried new dishes that their friends enjoy at home. One family who are from South Africa brought in a traditional corn bread, which was delicious. Parents were invited back early to taste the food, too, so it was a great way for staff to chat with them informally and foster greater links.

Many of the foods we had were sweet, so we had discussions about healthy eating and how it is important to have a balanced diet. We decided to do a savoury food tasting and had a variety of raw vegetables, such as carrot, celery and peppers, which we looked at, both whole and when they were cut up, tasted and ate with dips, including hummus and tzatziki.

The focus on food inspired some of the children to do observational paintings of different fruit and vegetables. Other creative activities included grandparents showing the children how to make pace eggs, which are traditionally made in the area at Easter and rolled down hills on Easter Sunday.

These are made by putting spring flowers, such as primroses, on to egg shells, wrapping them in onion skin and binding them with cotton before boiling them. When the onion skin and flowers are removed a delicate flower pattern is left on the shell.

DINNER TIME

At the end of the term we held a feedback session, when we asked the children and parents their thoughts on the project. We received many positive comments, including:

- 'Good to get us baking again and remembering recipes from my childhood'

- 'Stimulated my child's interest in cooking and eating'

- 'My son tried quite a few things he has refused at home and now likes'

- 'Food tasting, she now eats lettuce!'

- 'We did baking together and brought it in for the tasting morning which we both enjoyed. I think the children were proud of their grandparents' efforts.'

It was wonderful to foster such good links with older members of our community, especially as some of our children have very young grandparents, so may not have much interaction with pensioners. The children so enjoyed spending time with them, we're inviting them back into the nursery for a two-course hot meal which the children will help to prepare and then eat with them.

Another spin-off is that we have collated many delicious recipes. We are planning on compiling a favourite family recipes book.

The whole project showed us just what an interesting and important subject food and cooking is and how it bonds and brings people together.

Veronica Broyd spoke to Annette Rawstrone

THE COOKING CURRICULUM

All the six areas of learning can be covered while cooking with children. For example:

- Personal, social and emotional development - gaining satisfaction from creating a dish and sharing it

- Communication, language and literacy - reading simple recipe instructions and following pictures in sequence, talking about ingredients, textures and baking methods

- Problem-solving, reasoning and numeracy - doing measurements such as filling cups and counting spoonfuls, ensuring there is enough for everyone to share

- Knowledge and understanding of the world - the science of transforming different ingredients, such as flour, sugar and eggs, and how they behave when they are mixed and cooked

- Physical development - developing co-ordination through using a range of cooking utensils

- Creative development - creating different shaped cakes, biscuits or sandwiches, serving food, presenting it nicely.

A MENU OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS

- Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper (Random House - also her books A Pipkin of Pepper and Delicious!)

Three friends get together every day to make soup, until one of them wants to do it differently. The first of a trilogy.

- Mr Wolf's Pancakes by Jan Fearnley (Egmont Children's Books)

Mr Wolf fancies some pancakes but doesn't know how to make them. Asking his neighbours is no use - they're a mean lot who refuse to help.

- I Eat Fruit! and I Eat Vegetables! written by Hannah Tofts and illustrated by Rupert Horrox (Zero to Ten)

Children are introduced to fruit and veg through real pictures and shown what needs to be peeled or sliced before eating.

- Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert (Red Wagon Books)

An appetising alphabet book featuring fruits and vegetables. Look out too for Ehlert's Growing Vegetable Soup (Red Wagon Books), which captures the growing process from seed to cooking pot.

- Ten Seeds by Ruth Brown (Random House)

Children can join in a gardening countdown from the planting of ten seeds and watch their progress. What will grow out of them?

- Oliver's Vegetables, Oliver's Fruit Salad and Oliver's Milkshake written by Vivian French and illustrated by Alison Bartlett (Hodder Children's Books)

Three bestsellers all about getting Oliver to eat what is good for him.

- Yum Yum Dim Sum by Amy Wilson Sanger (World Snacks, Tricycle Press)

A scrumptious parade of Chinese delights. This series also includes Mexican, Italian and Japanese food.

There are many children's cookbooks on the market, including Children's Quick and Easy Cookbook by Angela Wilkes and Jane Suthering (Dorling Kindersley), The Usborne Children's Cookbook by Rebecca Gilpin (Usborne) and Children's Book of Baking by Fiona Patchett (Usborne First Cookbooks).