One School’s Cooking Question Responses

When thinking about hands-on cooking with the children, tell me a little bit about…

Which cooking projects have been successful?
• Any projects which involve a group of children preparing the meal in a “real family like process”.
• Pancakes, salad bar, stir fry
• Tortilla making, bread making, pizza, sushi making, pretzels, lots and lots of cooking projects
• Nothing listed
• All of our “Bar” projects, see above
• For the 2’s and 3’s the simpler the better. 3-4 steps! We’ve made grilled cheese sandwiches, fruit blender smoothies, salad bar. Pumpkin pie was a challenge, but yummy!
• Group Discussion 10/15: banana pancakes, sushi, hummus, salad bar, taco bar, pasta bar, pizza, potatoes, stir fry, handmade tortillas, muffins, cornbread, soups

Which cooking projects have not worked at all?
• Where children are given individual cards to make their own meal, rather than as a group
• “They all seem to work out”
• “Can’t think of ones that didn’t work”
• Nothing listed
• Friendship vegetable soup, children never seem to eat it
• Shaking cream into butter was really hard. Also trying to make ice cream was not fun!

Which cooking projects do you never tire of preparing?
• Pancakes, waffles, taco bar, salad bar, pasta bar, sandwich making, nacho bar
• I love cooking in general
• Pizza, tortilla, sushi, bread
• Pumpkin bread, corn muffins, apple pie
• Salad bars, especially when we have a bounty to harvest from garden
• Ironed sandwiches (grilled cheese), fruit smoothies, salad bar, pancakes are fun!

What concerns do you have about food allergies in your program?
• Gluten, dairy allergies. We have chosen to make all our snacks gluten and dairy free which can be challenging but also exciting to expand our knowledge about foods and the variety of healthy alternatives.
• Eggs, nuts
• Gluten and dairy free this year
• This year not many…no gluten or egg allergies hurrah!
• Nuts, eggs
• It’s difficult! You never want to have a child excluded so we always try to have alternative ingredients so they can still do the project!

One School’s Garden Question Responses

I have found that it is challenging to get individual teachers to answer these questions, and I have learned that asking them to work together as a teaching team works really well. Below are the answers from one school’s teaching teams to the first three garden questions.

Which plants have been successful?

• Lettuces, kale, tomatoes beets
• Carrots, lettuces, broccoli, radish, chard, kale, squashes, cherry tomatoes, fava beans, snap peas
• Tomatoes, fava beans, lettuces, carrots, radish, potatoes, zucchini
• Fava beans, chard
• Tomatoes, chard, carrots, potatoes, beets, fava beans, lettuces, broccoli, cucumbers
• Lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, beets, broccoli, pumpkins!, fava beans, radishes, kale, chard, cauliflower

Which plants didn’t work at all?

• Carrots—because of their growth period
• Soy beans, large tomatoes
• Nothing listed
• Nothing listed 
• Cauliflower, soybeans, pumpkins (too cold?)
• Celery—took forever but finally yielded two huge plants.  Our garlic was small and not so good.
• Group Discussion10/15:  Soy beans, large tomatoes, cauliflower, dino kale, corn

Which plants do you never tire of growing?

• Lettuces, kale
• Carrots, fava, snap peas
• Carrots, potatoes “I love having the kids dig for potatoes”
• Carrots and tomatoes. “The children love to just pick and eat them”
• Tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, lettuce
• Carrots, beets, tomatoes, lettuce
• Group Discussion 10/15: Herbs, cilantro, thyme, sage; carrot, snap peas, kale, lettuces, beets, onion, garlic, squash, fruit trees, broccoli: baby, purple, broccolini; sun flowers, potatoes, berries (blue!), cucumber, kale, chard, pumpkin

How to Begin Creating Cooking Links in an Integrated Food Curriculum

When planning any hands-on cooking for young learners I always begin with a set of questions. Below is the set I have asked over and over again, of myself, my colleagues, and educators and administrators in programs that have asked me to create curriculum for them. The answers to these questions help me to think about what cooking projects might work best meeting the faculty where they are in their own cooking skills.

When thinking about hands-on cooking with the children,
tell me a little bit about…

• Which cooking projects have been successful?
• Which cooking projects have not worked at all?
• Which cooking projects do you never tire of preparing?
• What concerns do you have about food allergies in your program?

How to Begin Creating Garden Links in an Integrated Food Curriculum

For the next couple of weeks, I am going to lead you through an example of how I create a linked garden, cooking, and classroom curriculum. It is my hope that this will inspire you to begin creating your own.

When planning any garden I always begin with a set of questions. Below is the set of questions I have asked over and over again, of myself, my colleges, and educators and administrators in programs that have asked me to create curriculum for them. The answers to these questions help me to think about what the garden plan I’m designing might grow into.

When thinking about the all school garden, tell me a little about…

• Which plants have been successful?
• Which plants didn’t work at all?
• Which plants do you never tire of growing?
• Please describe any garden to table rituals that you already have in place.
• An example of one that I observed was using the apples from the school orchard being used as a topping for waffles in one class and applesauce in another.
• Please describe any garden to table rituals you wish you could create.
• An example from my own experience is growing Rainbow Inca Corn and the grinding of the corn into meal to make corn bread.

What Kind of School Garden Might Work for You?

Today’s picture is of a Story Garden, and as you take a moment and sit in this garden, perhaps you can day-dream about what the garden in your own program might one day look like!

On Saturday October 22 I presented at the Painting the Future Conference held at Foothill College which focused on the importance of children being outside! The Keynote Speaker was Eric Nelson who is the director of The Outdoor Classroom Project. Eric’s address “Restoring the Wonder and Joy of Childhood through the Outdoor Classroom” was a passionate talk from the heart. He believes as I do, and research supports this, that children need unstructured time to explore the outdoor world. Teachers are facilitators, and environment should be thoughtfully set-up to inspire young learners. It was really interesting to learn from Eric, that children spend less than 2% of their outdoor time on structures. Which makes me wonder—what else is in the outdoor environment in your program that sparks the curiosity and imagination of the young child?

My workshop was about Sprouting Food Memories in Early Learning from Garden to Outdoor Kitchen, and I focused on inspiring educators to think about where they might tuck a garden into their program, or expand the one they already have. For the last nine years it had been my great fortune to have had access to gardens to support my work with children both as a chef and an educator.