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Activities


Kids in the Kitchen

Let's cook!

Materials

  • Cooking supplies and ingredients for simple, no-cook recipes (see Directions)

Directions
Be inventive! Create new recipes with your child. As much as possible, let your child be head cook and you be the assistant. Write down the recipes that you create on recipe cards (index cards) or in a notebook. Give each recipe a title. Your child can illustrate each recipe and give it a rating: YUMMY, OKAY, or NEVER AGAIN.

Basic Smoothie recipe:

Combine 1/2 cup juice, 1 cup yogurt, and 1/2 cup fruit in a blender. If you wish, add 4 ice cubes. (Serves 2 people.) Let your child choose the type of juice and fruit (a mix of fruit is often nice!), and the flavor of yogurt. Adjust the proportion of juice, yogurt and fruit to suit your taste.

Basic Gorp recipe:

Let your child create a customized mixture of seeds, nuts, dried fruit, chocolate or butterscotch bits, et cetera. You may want to have your child count out the ingredients for an individual snack portion, for example: 12 pumpkin seeds, 12 raisins, 5 dried cherries, 5 peanuts, 3 almonds, 15 chocolate bits.

Sandwich recipe:

Let your child design (and eat!) specialty sandwiches. Consider different options for bread (pita bread, tortillas, graham crackers, apple slices), main ingredients (meat, cheese, hummus, peanut butter) and toppings (lettuce, tomato, sprouts, raisins, pumpkin seeds, grated carrots).

Talk About It
Ask your child to talk about his or her favorite foods. What simple foods can your child make by him or herself? Cold cereal with milk and bananas? A favorite sandwich? Peanut butter and raisins on a celery stick? Chocolate milk? What other foods would she or he like to learn to make? You might want to try some of the recipe ideas in Directions or in a children's cookbook such as "Salad People and More Real Recipes."

Related Books
Dumpling Soup by Jama Kim Rattigan
The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza by Philemon Sturges
Salad People and More Real Recipes: A New Cookbook for Preschoolers & Up by Mollie Katzen


Next: Music & Dance
Back to Activities Index

Age Range: 4-6

Skills/Subjects:

  • Cooking
  • Fine Motor
  • Following Directions
  • Language and Literacy Development
  • Math and Numbers

Related Episodes: