Ks1 & Ks2 class cooking sessions

What a very busy but fantastic week I have just had.  I spent almost the whole week cooking with the amazing children at Reepham Primary School in Norfolk.  In the run up to their harvest celebrations, every year group took part in a class cooking session run by yours truly.  By the end of the week, over 200 children had taken part!

The recipes were chosen based on skill and dexterity level but also, we were trying where possible to use seasonal ingredients to fit in with the harvest theme.  Also, the children are being given the opportunity to bring their own baking creations into school this week in a school bake off!

The reception children made a large variety of animal biscuits, though one little boy was a bit disappointed when I didn’t have a hammerhead shark cookie cutter.  Elephants and rhinos seemed to suffice though.

The KS1 children (Years 1 and 2) made apple fudge muffins which proved very popular.   The KS2 children (Years 3, 4, 5 and 6) made bread rolls and I demonstrated a carrot and cheddar soup, which turned out to be very popular despite some of the children initially saying they didn’t like soup, carrots or cheese!  During one of the breaks to allow the dough to rise, we conducted a cheese tasting.  The children tried four different types of cheese – Brie, Emmental, Wensleydale and Feta.  This was great fun and the children really got into it.  They had to describe the look of the cheese, its texture and the taste.  The expectations with regard to the use of adjectives versus “ticks” depended on the age of the children and the wishes of the class teacher.

Not only does cooking with children improve their skills in this area, it helps their reading, comprehension and maths ability too.  My cookery thermometer (used to check the temperature of the water for the bread dough) was frequently described as cool. Not necessarily something I had expected to hear.

It was also interesting to see how children’s tastes develop over time with the number of children liking the different cheeses increasing with age.  It was also fascinating to see how willing children are to try different foods when given the right encouragement and when under no pressure to do so.  My “New Foods Tasting Chart” works on this basis by rewarding a child for simply trying a food rather than being forced to eat it all. 

I thoroughly enjoyed all the cooking lessons and the positive feedback from both teachers and children show the children gained a great deal from it too.  Now I just need to speak to some other primary schools about cooking with their pupils too. 

katrina is a self-taught cook who is passionate about passing on an interest in food and basic cooking skills to families and children. She owns a small business called Kitchen Fairy Godmother in Norwich which provides cooking lessons, children’s cooking parties and a variety of cookery workshops.