Cooking with children offers an educational, fun, and enjoyable experience. Cooking offers an opportunity to use early math skills while measuring ingredients and then adding those ingredients in the correct order, and practice social-emotional skills by working as a team and taking turns.
Sometimes, though, choosing the right recipe for the children in your care can be a project in and of itself. Finding something to make that is engaging, nutritional, developmentally-appropriate, and relevant to your curriculum can be overwhelming. A fun and simple way to tackle this challenge is to choose some of your children’s favorite books and find recipes that relate to the story! Children quickly engage in activities that stem from stories they already love. To help you get inspired, you can find a few of our favorite books to cook with below:
If you Give a Pig a Pancake is always a classroom favorite with preschoolers. It’s a silly, simple story that children will want to read again and again. And, what better recipe to make along with this story than pancakes? Pancakes are simple to whip up, require few ingredients, and are easy to make healthy by using whole wheat flour and apple sauce. Click here for a recipe from Kristine’s Kitchen.
Blueberries for Sal is a classic sweet story about a young girl who goes out collecting blueberries. A simple blueberry smoothie pairs perfectly with this story. Smoothies are quick, easy, and healthy snacks for children. Click here to get a recipe for a blueberry smoothie with oatmeal.
This favorite is a story that can be enjoyed by toddlers, preschoolers, and older children. After engaging with the book’s illustrations of big, red tasty strawberries, children will be happy to enjoy a strawberry treat of their own! Strawberry yogurt popsicles pair perfectly with this story and are healthy and simple to make (remember that children under 1 year cannot have honey).
