Personal and social development – Baking food to share with each other
The children in nursery spend lots of time pretending to make cakes, biscuits and other treats to share with their friends and the adults in nursery, for example with the play dough and in the home corner. We were inspired by this and our learning around sharing and being kind to one another and have therefore been baking with the children. The finished items were then shared with the children in nursery, as well as with the children’s family on the occasions when the treats were taken home.
When we talked about Valentine’s Day with the children and encouraged them to talk about who they loved and why, there was no other cake we could make, apart from a love heart shaped one! We looked at recipes and images of the ingredients we would need, before writing a shopping list together and of course deciding how we would decorate the cake. Later in the term, one of the children had been baking shortbread at home, which we then made together at nursery. As well being able to share what we make with others, baking and cooking activities provide a wealth of maths and scientific learning opportunities, around measuring and weighing ingredients, as well as observing how ingredients change as they are mixed together and then cooked.
