Written by: Jodi Buresh (Spring 2020)
Involving Kids
Getting kids into the kitchen to bake is not only something they love to do but it is a great learning environment. It’s safe, entertaining and most of all delicious. It’s also a great way to bond and create lasting memories with your child. You will be teaching critical math concepts, eliminating pressure, and fostering a love for deep learning. The important thing to remember is to let your child lead; be there for support and scaffolding. Baking is full of developmentally appropriate learning opportunities, one-to-one corresponding, colors, shapes, measuring, weighing, and fractions. Baking is so much more than math; there is reading and science involved too!
National Standards
The national standards in mathematics describes what children should learn in preschool. The key components are: Number concepts, patterns, relationships, geometry, spatial sense, measurement, data collection, organization, and representation (Dodge, Colker & Heroman, 2002).
One-to-one Corresponding
Counting with your child the number of ingredients you have out for your recipe is a great way to work on one-to-one corresponding. One-to-one correspondence means linking one, and only one, number with each item in a set of objects (Dodger, Colker &Heroman, 2002). I have found it helpful to have your child touch each ingredient as they count them. That way your child learns to link one, and only one, number to each item. If your child counts an item more than once, you can support them by having them count an object and move it to one side. You can also include quantity, by asking them how many ingredients do they have for their recipe. Comparisons, are a good one to use, you can ask them, “Is the flour bag bigger or smaller than the baking soda box?”
Measuring and Weighing
Baking is all about measuring and weighing out ingredients. For preschool-age children, get them familiar with measuring cups and spoons. It is important to use the correct vocabulary. Your child will learn more by using the materials themselves. Hands-on learning is always the best. This would be a good time to introduce comparing ingredients. Comparisons involve knowing the meaning of ‘more than,’ ‘bigger than,’ ‘less than,’ and ‘same as.’ An example would be, “Is there more flour than sugar?”
Color and Shapes
Kids love to learn about colors and shapes. Here is a fun way to get them involved in the kitchen. If you are baking cookies, you can talk about that they are in the shape of a circle. You can ask if we could make other shapes out of the cookie dough. Children first, learn to recognize simple shapes like squares, triangles, and circles (Dodge, Colker & Heroman, 2002). They will build on their knowledge and start to connect that because the shape has 3 sides then it’s a triangle.
Fractions
Baking is a great way to start to introduce fractions to your child and fractions are a huge part of baking. You can start out by showing your child what a whole and a half are. Once you feel they understand the whole and half concept you can move on to fourth and thirds. The two key ways for children to understand fractions are hands-on experience and visual (Nelson, 2015). Baking is both hands-on and visual; it’s a win-win. Depending on the age of your child and their knowledge of fractions you could teach them how to double a recipe or convert the recipe to a small batch.
Getting into the kitchen will be fun for both you and your child. Children love seeing what they have made and they are even more excited to eat what they have made. You will be teaching them important life skills and having fun at the same time. Baking is learning!
References
Dodge, D. T., Colker, L. J., & Heroman, C. (2002). The creative curriculum for preschool (4th ed.). Teaching Strategies
Nelson, K. (December 9, 2016). 5 ways to make teaching fractions way easier. Retrieved from https://www.weareteachers.com/make-teaching-fractions-easier/