Cooking in the Kitchen!

It was a quick week this week and we focused on two rooms during our Rooms of the House theme. First up was the Kitchen.
I knew I wanted to do a cooking activity, but wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do. I got a fabulous home-made ice cream recipe from Discover and Learn Preschool, but didn't get a chance to try it out beforehand (maybe for summer school!).
Instead, we went with our old delicious stand-by, fruit salad.

We started at our circle time by singing the classic song by the Wiggles, Fruit Salad (yummy yummy!!). I printed up the lyrics, complete with pictures, for a visual for the students to look at and read. After we got Fruit Salad stuck in everyone's head, we went to one of our small group tables and got to cooking!

Targets
Vocabulary- kitchen, refrigerator, sink, table, fruit, cut
Sequencing-First, Next, Last

We got started by reviewing the steps for making our fruit salad, per The Wiggles--
The first step--Peel the banana.

We peeled the banana, and added the step of cutting it. The students each had a chance to use the (plastic) knife and cut.
We already gave everyone a plate and a spoon (after they had requested them-- "I want a spoon"), so we added the banana.
The next step--Toss in some grapes.

We took the grapes out of the refrigerator and washed them in the sink. Then, the students requested their grapes ("I want grapes") and we counted to 3 as we added the grapes.
The next step--Chop up some apples.

This was a great time to review the concept whole, as we showed the students a whole apple, pretended to cut it...and then opened up a bag of pre-cut apple slices... (sometimes we are short on time, so ya gotta improvise!)
The last step--Chop up some melons and put them on your plate.

Another great experiential activities where the students got to explore a cantaloupe by touching, smelling, tapping and picking up the melon. Again, we pretended to cut it up and opened up our pre-cut fruit to add the melon. It was also fun to check out the greenish outside of a cantaloupe versus the yummy orange insides.

Now that we made it, it was time to eat it...
We put the scraps away (in the trash),
We washed our plates and spoons (in the sink)
And we hope to do it all again real soon!
Fruit Salad, Yummy Yummy!!!

With some of the students, it was a big hit and they loved all of the fruit. Other students weren't to eager to try. There is a hierarchy to follow for kids who have food aversions, starting with touching the food with their hands, touching the food with their cheek, then their lips, then into their  mouth. Eventually, you would want them to chew a few times then spit it out and eventually eat bites.

.