Cooking and Baking in the Toddler Classroom

In Breakwater’s early childhood programs, there is a strong focus on immersing students in a multitude of sensory experiences and giving them a rich exposure to different materials. One of many such ways our toddler teachers incorporate sensory experience and skill building into their curriculum is through cooking and baking. Cooking and baking is used in both of our toddler classrooms and toddlers have just as much fun (if not more fun!) creating a dish, snack, or dessert as they do eating it. 

Toddler teacher Erica Paul shares “baking and cooking opens up a world of sensory opportunities. Children can experience the different textures, smells and tastes of particular ingredients.” Toddlers build on a wide variety of fine motor skills through scooping, stirring, cutting, and peeling and learn how to take turns when everyone gets a chance to mix the recipe’s ingredients. Teachers and toddlers sing “mix it, mix it, mix it, mix it all around, mix it, mix it, mix it, then pass it to your friend” to reinforce sharing and turn taking when baking or cooking. When selecting which recipes to make, Erica notes that in her and Carrie Bowring’s classroom, they “focus on making recipes that have a satisfying sensory experience like rolling dough, and [recipes] that can be cooked from start to finish in a short period of time.” So far this year, toddlers in Erica’s and Carrie’s class have loved to crack eggs and enjoy creating foods that allow them to make their own individual creations like English muffin pizzas!

Cooking and baking also allows for a form of connection amongst families when we aren’t able to spend time together as a larger community. In Danielle Gorman’s and Sarah Beckmann’s toddler classroom, families all contributed to a classroom cookbook that was later shared with students’ families. Danielle shares, “we ask[ed] families to share with us family favorites, made each one in the classroom, and created a cookbook to share with everyone as a way of connecting during this year of social distancing and firm bubbles.” Additional recipes were added based on favorite foods that toddlers have brought in their snack and lunch boxes so far this year. Some of the best parts of cooking Danielle notes is being able to expose students to different ingredients (and smells!) - she shares that “chopped onions and garlic generate wonderful faces!” 

By making recipes in the classroom that were shared by families, toddlers are able to learn more about their classmates’ families through food. This sometimes results in creating old favorite recipes in addition to trying new and maybe less familiar dishes such as pickle soup! Happy cooking young chefs!