Cooking: On Their Own
- At February 28, 2017
- By CGMontessori
- In CGM BLOG, CGM Parent News
- 0
I made a decision this week. I have a couple of 5 year olds that are reading well and able to complete large projects on their own. So the logical step is taking their math and reading lessons to the kitchen.
(A side note: My older children have small daily work plans to assist them in constructing their work cycles.)
I surprised Carson and Amy with “Bake Banana Muffins” for their “math” section of their daily plan. They were even more excited when I informed them they would be on their own with the baking, the only assistance being with the oven.
I was confident they could handle this. The results were great, but the best part was what we all learned during the process.
I had all of the ingredients they would need out on the counter with all of the utensils and bowls ready as well. I decided to eliminate the step of fetching all of the needed supplies, feeling it wasn’t the lesson we needed to be focused on. My goal in this exercise was to have them read, measure, complete the recipe, and enjoy the result.
First, let’s start with the recipe. I hand-wrote the cards, laminated them and put them on a metal binder ring to keep the pages in order.
My notes during my observation:
1. There was a long discussion about who would be reading the recipe. One of these students is a stronger reader, one is a new reader. Strong reader thought they should read all of it. New reader said that was not fair and they should at least have a chance. After some consideration, they decided to have the new reader try first and ask for help if they needed it.
2. This recipe called for coconut oil, which is solid in the jar. They tried to pour it into the measuring cup, but realized that it was not liquid. They then tried to put the measuring cup into the jar but it wouldn’t fit. They were truly perplexed and asked for my help. I just shrugged my shoulders and smiled. It took over 5 minutes of frustration and a little arguing before Amy had her “a-ha” moment and grabbed a spoon.
3. A snack break was needed after the coconut oil measuring.
4. There were a lot of questions about terminology. What does a “smashed” banana look like? What does “combine” mean? What is a “mixture?” I soon realized that I wrote these recipe cards with my knowledge of cooking vocabulary and not theirs.
5. With numerous breaks, this recipe took 1 1/2 hours to complete. I won’t bore you with the cleanup process and the complaining that went with it. However, they were able to finish. The muffins were delicious and they were so pleased to have made them all by themselves.
This week we also began some discussion about spices. The end plan is to put together a garam masala spice mix to make an indian dish. We started with cinnamon. we examined the spice in stick and ground form. I accompanied this exploration with a lesson about how cinnamon is grown and harvested, where it grows and how we use it. Next week, cardamom.