Above and Beyond Educational Experiences | Friends Forest Shere
Cooking in the Early Years is a great, fun experience which offers a wealth of learning and development.
The cooking activities offer cross curricular learning across all seven areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage and because children enjoy the experience so much, they are not even aware they are learning new skills. The activity is a sensory experience often using all the five-senses making it a more engaging and truly memorable experience.
Cooking also gives children knowledge on healthy food options, exploring where food comes from instigates a wide discussion.
The cooking station is an experience that is on offer at all parts of the day. Practitioners will plan to cook with the children, but children are also encouraged to be independent and choose when they wish to cook. This might be once a week or every day.
Regular cookery sessions at the Nursery will also give them valuable self-help skills whilst cooking delicious recipes that can be shared with parents. Some of skills children will acquire whilst cooking are listed below:
Promote good hygiene before beginning such as cleaning tables and washing hands
Encouraging children to name the ingredients and discuss where it has come from or how it grows; understanding the farm to fork experiences
Encouraging children to weigh out their own ingredients
Using exploration language about the textures and smell, encouraging children to explore, actively learn and to critically think for themselves
Young Investigators Group
Our Pre-School Young Investigators Group is perfect for inspiring little minds, and gives our children the opportunity to participate in two science experiments each week. Science offers so many areas of learning but mostly falls under the ‘Understanding the World’ area of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage. This cross-curricular subject also enables young minds to embrace other categories of the curriculum. Science enables children to be explorers in the world around them. It involves questioning, experimenting, testing, analysing and developing ideas (critical thinking). Our children will be involved in exploring a wide range of new vocabulary when engaged in a science activity or experiment.
Our Young Investigators Group gives children a solid foundation for their knowledge and understanding of science, which they will later build upon when moving on to primary school. The group focuses on developing children’s skills in observation, prediction, critical thinking and discussion, when reviewing the data. Concepts of number, size and position, developing motor skills, expressing themselves and building relationships and self-esteem will be involved.
The group will be conducting experiments, exploring different methods of discovery, and presenting their findings to their peers and families, all of which contributes to their learning and development in a fun and engaging way.