Lift the lid

Jean Evans shows why

Young children love exploring a cupboard full of pots and pans at home.

Extend this exciting activity into your setting by using pots and pans to provide learning opportunities across the curriculum.

(Discard any items with sharp edges before children use them and, when cooking, keep the children at a safe distance from any heat source.)

Let's get cooking

Encourage the children to use pots and pans to cook up their own resources, snacks and meals.

* Invite children to make their own dough by measuring 200g plain flour, 100g salt, 2 teaspoons cream of tartar, 1tbs cooking oil, 300ml water and a few drops of food colouring into a large pan. Mix the ingredients thoroughly. Heat gently and stir constantly. When the dough is stiff, turn it onto a board, cool and knead.

* Scatter a layer of popping corn across the base of a strong pan, put on the lid and heat slowly. Listen to the corn popping as it hits the lid.

* Use glass pans to cook rice, pasta or vegetables and let the children watch so that you can explain the cooking process.

* Read The Three Bears and The Great Big, Enormous Turnip before cooking porridge and turnip soup in large pans.

Let's pretend

Explore the uses of pots and pans in the home area through play.

* Try to use real pans if possible, rather than toy plastic ones.

* Cook food from other cultures using appropriate pots, such as a wok or Indian cooking pot, before introducing smaller versions to the home area.

* Encourage the children to use collage scraps, such as pieces of fabric, as imitation 'food' for their pots and pans.

Material facts

Discover more about the properties of materials through scientific investigation of pots and pans.

* Visit a hardware shop or supermarket to explore the range of pots and pans for sale and compare their size, shape and appearance.

* Investigate the reflective properties of shiny pots and pans by inviting the children to observe their faces in them.

* Ask the children why they think pots and pans are usually made of metal.

What would happen if they tried to cook with a plastic, wooden or paper pan?

* Search for small metal objects, such as keys, spoons, screws and nuts, drop them into a large metal pan and talk about the metallic sound they make.

Sounds like fun

Pots and pans are exciting resources for making a range of sounds.

* Supply a selection of pots and pans with lids and ask the children to choose one. What sounds can they make? What happens if they lift the lid up and down gently and then with more force?

* Create 'drums' by securing a range of materials to pans using a large elastic band or string. Which material makes the most satisfying sound?

* Use pan lids as cymbals, holding one in each hand and clashing them together.

* Suggest that the children work in pairs in the sand area with one child holding a pan lid with the under-surface uppermost while another child drops dry sand gently on to it. What happens if the sand is dropped from a greater height? Try dropping rice or beads instead and compare the sounds created.

Pots full, pots empty?

Use pots and pans to develop children's mathematical skills.

* Provide pots and pans of different sizes in the water, and wet and dry sand areas. Introduce words related to capacity and weight, such as 'full', 'empty', 'heavier' and 'lighter', as you encourage the children's investigations.

* Sort a selection of objects, such as small plastic bears or coloured socks, into a row of pans. Encourage the children to choose their own criteria, such as colour, size or pattern.

* Invite the children to match pan lids to the correct pans.

* Number a row of pans from 1 to 6 by taping a plastic numeral to each one.

Invite the children to take turns to throw a die, count the spots, put the correct number of small objects into the corresponding pan and then count them back out again to check accuracy.

Outdoor learning

Weather resistant, pots and pans make durable outdoor resources.

* Create a sound exploration area by hanging brightly painted pans and metal lids from a washing line or the branch of a tree. Make sure they are at a height that children can reach but not bang their heads. Use twigs, wooden spoons and other everyday objects as beaters.

* Include pots and pans in the wet sand area for exploring capacity and developing imaginary ideas.

* Go outside on a rainy day holding a metal pan or lid and listen to the sound of raindrops pattering on the surface.

* Enjoy making mud pies in a builder's tray using lots of pots and pans, soil, water, spoons and mixing sticks.

* Invite the children to try to throw beanbags into pots and pans.