Motor skills

This week my son is Star of the Week.  He is very excited and we have been preparing his poster and objects to bring in for class.  Also, he is snack friend this week.  I like to coordinate the snack to what the children are learning that day.  However, since he is Star of the Week I thought we would make a star snack.  We made star Jell-o jigglers in his favorite color and we made star graham crackers.  I decided to use the graham cracker recipe as our lesson this week.  There are so many concepts to learn through baking so I am breaking them down and focusing on one concept each week.  This week I focused on basics, motor skills. 

I gave the children directions and let them pour, scoop, cut, roll, use the cookie cutter, and turn the mixer on.  They enjoyed themselves and felt completely involved in the process.  While adding ingredients to the bowl we discussed certain ingredients such as brown sugar because it was different than the white sugar we bake with, and wheat flour. 

Measuring honey.

While the little chefs were busy pouring, measuring, and cutting I observed them.  I watched how they poured honey into the measuring cup.  They all paid attention to which line to fill up to. 
I watched how my son held the knife to cut the butter and how he took his time and concentrated to be sure he was careful while cutting. 









Adding water to the mix.

 I noticed that my three year old daughter was able to pour the flour and water into the bowl without spilling.  That is an improvement since October.  My two year old daughter was able to scoop brown sugar into the measuring cup and put the sugar into the mixing bowl.  While they were mixing ingredients I also heard discussion between them.  They were working out who would do each task.  Also, when my son cut the butter, the wrappers needed to be removed.  Between them they decided that the oldest two kids (who were the furthest from the mixer) would unwrap the butter and the youngest would put the butter into the mixer.  It was a nice assembly line.  My son and daughter held the cube of butter in one hand and with the other hand used two fingers to pull the wrapper off. 



Removing the wrapper.



                                                                     

Slicing butter.



 They all took turns using the star cookie cutter and then we needed to count the stars to make sure we had enough for the class.  This part was great for my two year old.  She counts items and will miss numbers, so my son tells her what number she missed.  It was good for her to count along with us and hear the numbers.  It was also nice for my three year old to count to twenty.  She missed sixteen and nineteen, so her brother helped her out.  When we got past twenty she became quiet so that tells me she doesn’t know those numbers yet.

This was the first time making graham crackers and they were excited.  Fortunately we had extra so they could taste them.  They all loved them! I am glad since we’re taking them to school!

After the kitchen was cleaned and we were sitting at the table I asked them what they learned from baking graham crackers. I was just curious to hear what they would say.  My son said he learned about brown sugar.  “You need to pack the sugar and the color helps make the graham crackers brown.” 

I have seen improvements with their motor skills since the fall.  I can’t wait to see how much they improve in the next eight weeks!  I learned so much about these three chefs in just one baking activity.  I can take this information and use it the next time to continue their learning. 



Pouring ingredients into measuring spoons.