Today in my centre some of the children decided that they
would like to bake cupcakes. So I went into the kitchen and found all the
ingredients needed. We had a look at the recipe to see what we needed to do
first. Another teacher stopped to see what we were doing. I said that we were going through a
technological process. The New Zealand
Curriculum says that ‘technological areas include structural, control, food
and information and communications technology and biotechnology’ (Ministry of
Education, 2007, p.32) so food or baking is technology. She didn’t seem to
agree with this. The process of preparing something for baking or cooking is
indeed a technological process Smorti states that ‘…process cooking is a
technological activity or system, developed, used and adapted by early
childhood services to meet children’s learning needs’ (Smorti, 1999, p.6). The
process of baking such as the mixing, beating and the rising of the cupcakes is
all part of the technical process which occurs. Smorti says further that
children use their knowledge
about processes and problem solving (technology), science, reading,
mathematics. They use: physical skills (eg holding bowls and spoons, mixing),
social emotional skills, and language (they can describe what they are doing and
they talk to each other). They also use the resources provided (ingredients,
process cooking cards, and maybe educators as sources of information)
(Smorti, 1999,
p.6).
Through this experience children are able to interact with
one another, they discuss what ingredient goes next and how they will go about
adding it to the bowl. They are also encouraged in turn taking and sharing as
not everyone is able to mix the ingredients together at the same time Te Whāriki says that
‘children experience an environment where they are encourages to learn with and
alongside others’ (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.64). Children measure
quantity using measuring cups and measuring spoons. While adding ingredients
together they see which ingredients dissolve and others which sit on the
surface and don’t change form. Children are able to learn different terms
associated with baking such as creaming, whisking, beating, folding and mixing.
They also strengthen their fine motor skills by pouring and measuring. Mixing
and keeping ingredients inside the bowl is a concept which is learnt by
practise. By actually doing these processes they are able to have hands on
experience with these concepts. The process of preparing something to put into
the oven cannot be experienced by using a digital technology concept. This is
the only way which children are able to actively engage in the satisfaction of
making something which they are able to contribute to the process and then have
the satisfaction of eating it. I believe that these experiences are crucial for
children as they are taught the process of cooking or baking and in the future
they may not just rely on microwave meals and instant food. Some teachers and
parents may not think that baking is a essential experience for children to
have, but I believe it is, these are some of my main reasons why.
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They develop an interest in and
passion for baking at an early age is likely to last for life.
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Children see other people eating
something he or she has made can help to improve a child's self-esteem and
will provide a real sense of achievement.
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Children love to bake because they
get to use all of their senses: seeing, touching, tasting, feeling, smelling
and listening.
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Children are encouraged to be
creative and experiment, enabling them to learn through discovery.
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Children will improve their
understanding of food, how it is made and what goes into a recipe, and allows
you to talk about where the ingredients came from.
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They are able to see how food changes
with mixing, applying heat, adding liquid, etc. will help to improve an
understanding of science.
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They develop thinking skills which can
be seen through seeing cause and effect relationships in food preparation,
e.g. what happens if you add too much or not enough flour, water, etc.
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Baking helps children to develop
their motor neurone skills and can help with their concentration and
listening skills.
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Following recipes helps with reading
and arithmetic and improves an understanding of weights and measures.
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Reference List
Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum for
English-medium teaching and learning in years 1-13. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media
Limited.
Ministry
of Education. (1996). Te whāriki, he
whaariki mātauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa : Early childhood curriculum.
Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.
Smori, S. (1999)
Technology in Early Childhood. Early
Education, 19, 5-10.
This is an awesome post Tanja! I really like the list that you added about what development children can experience from baking because it shows how much benefits they can gain from it. Like you I am also convinced that baking is technology because it is going through a technical process. Smorti says that "using a process approach to technology...it is the doing that is important, rather than the product" (Smorti, 1999) hence baking and the technological process that children get to experience is a lot more valuable than we think. With baking they learn measuring, reading, and it fosters social competence when they are working with other children. Therefore I agree with your statemnent 100% that the "process of preparing something to put into the oven cannot be experienced by using a digital technology concept".
ReplyDeleteHi Tanja great blog :) I completely agree baking is a great for social interaction and communication as well as building social competence such as turn taking and patience. I think you have made some very valuable points about the process of baking and have convinced me that baking is a technological process. I fully agree with your comment about enabling children to learn through experimenting and discovery. When children are involved in the process of baking they can learn the many different concepts of quantity, measuring and cause and effect by partaking in a hands on experience. Children also get that satisfaction and contribution when involved in the process and like you said get the enjoyment of tasting it after. “Baking offers an opportunity for children to do something which builds their sense of competence and accomplishment” (Crocker, 2007). This is a very informative post with information that should be posted around the kitchen to inspire your colleague that the process of baking is indeed a technological process that is very beneficial for children.
ReplyDeleteHi Tanja I really enjoyed reading your blog. I also love baking with the children and do it alot in my centre. I agree that baking is very beneficial for the childrens socail skills amd communication. I loved the points you made about how baking is a technological process and i can see where you are coming from and totally agree with you. I must admit i didnt think of the process of baking to be technological but after reading your points i understand it is. Children agina lot of new skills from the process of baking such as understanding turn taking, measuring ingrediants, new gross motor skills such as mixing or cracking an egg. the children also get to see the ingrediants in their natural form which can spark interst and communication for alto of children simply because many children dont see some foods in their natural form like flour and sugar etc. Letting children be involved in the process of baking is viewing them as capable and confident and trusting in the child. "Experiances and interactions with peers and adults allow children to costruct knowledge and understand relationships" (Young, 2001, p.1)
ReplyDeleteHi Tanja.
ReplyDeleteAwesome blog. When you mentioned that food or baking is technology, I stopped for a second and thought about it. Something that I haven’t really thought about before as to how can food preparation be technology until now when you mentioned it. For me personally, I have always thought that technology is something technical such as computers and cameras, but food? Smorti states that ‘…process cooking is a technological activity or system, developed, used and adapted by early childhood services to meet children’s learning needs’ (Smorti, 1999, p.6). I definitely learnt something while reading your blog.
It was also great to see how you classified food as part of technology. You broke it down by mentioning that the process of baking such as the mixing, beating and the rising of the cupcakes is all part of the technical process which occurs.
Making food such as cookies, cupcakes, cakes or even play-dough gets the children to interact in a variety of ways such as turn-taking, sharing, helping the younger ones and use their verbal or non-verbal skills for communicating with one another and it was good to see that you pointed this out in your blog. Te Whāriki says that ‘children experience an environment where they are encourages to learn with and alongside others’ (Ministry of Education, 1996, p.64). Great to see you mentioning that the children also learn different terms when preparing food and learning how to cook food from an early age which will help them throughout their lives.