As I have cared for my newborn baby the last three months, it has been hard for me to sit down to "regular" lessons with my 5 and 3 year old. My go-to teaching opportunities are in the kitchen and I often find myself utilizing the space as my classroom. There I am able to make food for my family and maintain cleanliness while teaching the principles of science, technology, engineering, art, math, reading, responsibility, self reliance, and kindness. Here is a recipe we made recently that was an especially enjoyable learning experience!
Recipe: Rainbow Rectangles
Ingredients:
Math: For a fun fractions or multiplication challenge, half the recipe or double the recipe! Have your kids figure out how much to measure of each ingredient.
- 2 eggs, separated into whites and yolks
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cups butter, softened
- 4 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- Rainbow Sugar for topping requires 1 cup sugar, Food coloring drops, and 3 tablespoons water
Directions:
Reading: Following a recipe is wonderful practice for learning to read different types of material. My children love to look through cookbooks and pick out a recipe to make. You can bet they picked to make this recipe, not me!
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Technology: Show your child how to preheat your oven. Show them the clock mode on your oven interface. Teach them how to tell digital time. Later have them set the timer and talk about how many minutes are in an hour and how many seconds are in a minute.
- Spray baking sheet (with edges) with cooking spray.
- Beat egg yolks, sugar, and butter in large bowl.
- Carefully and slowly stir in flour and cinnamon.
- Press dough onto the greased pan and smooth using a rolling pin on top of waxed paper.
- In another bowl, combine sugar, water, egg whites for topping. Whisk well. Engineering: Talk about simple machines and how these make our lives easier. Give the example of the rolling pin and the whisk.
- Separate liquid mixture into small bowls for different colors. Follow the table below to make the colors or experiment on your own testing how many drops of each color are required to make each hue for the edible rainbow. Science:
Color Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Purple Number of Food Coloring Drops Needed 8 drops red 2 drops yellow, 2 drops red 4 drops yellow 8 drops green 4 drops blue 3 drops red, 2 drops blue - Using a pastry brush, take turns painting the rainbow onto the pressed dough. For more sparkles, sprinkle sugar over the rainbow! Art: In addition to learning about the color wheel and primary and tertiary colors, an important part of art is practicing hand eye coordination. Holding a pastry brush and practicing brushstrokes is critical for creating art masterpieces.
- Bake for 20 minutes. Science: Be sure to use the oven light so that your children can watch as the ingredients change from a liquid mixture to a solid mixture. Talk about how different combinations create chemical reactions to produce soft, fluffy cookies, or hard and thin ones. Delve into how variances in temperature degrees make a substance boil, freeze, burn, etc.
- Cut into rectangles or squares. Math: Measure and determine the number of servings you want to have to figure out how to cut in your pan! Or learn about geometry, cutting different shapes with a butter knife or cookie cutters!
To teach older children about self-reliance, have them help you do the grocery shopping for the ingredients. Talk about where the ingredients come from and the process it takes for those ingredients to make it to your pantry. Discuss the cost of each item. More math practice as they add up the total $ it costs to make the treat. Don't forget the lessons of responsibility and kindness! Be sure to have your children help clean up afterwards, talk about proper hand hygiene, and have them share their treats with neighbors and friends!
