The children in Toddler Plus had a fun afternoon making jam tarts.They washed their hands, joined their friends at the table and waited for instructions. Practitioners Sophie and Allaina showed the children the ingredients and asked them if they knew what they were cooking? through the recognition of the jar of jam the children quickly replied "Jam tarts my favourite",
Having weighed out the ingredients with the children it was time to start adding the ingredients one by one to the large mixing bowl. Sophie supported the children and helped them when needed, she reflected on what was happening and waited for the children's response. The children used the large spoon to give the mixture a good stir, trying hard not to flick the ingredients out the bowl.As the mixture starting forming a dough consistency the children couldn't wait to get their hands in and make little balls of dough. The table was dusted with flour and the children used their hands to flatten the dough, each piece of dough was passed to Sophie to place in the baking tray. The next stage of the instructions was filling the pastry case with jam, as you can imagine the children were very eager to spoon the jam into their tart.As soon as it was home time the children couldn't wait to show their loved ones what they had made, the jam tarts didn't even make it home they were eaten before leaving nursery.Cooking with children creates a vast amount of opportunties for children, they learn about simple science, develop mathematical awareness, learn new words rapidly and most importantly it develops children's Social and Emotional development.
