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As long as you're okay with a little bit of mess, bring your kids into the kitchen often so that they can learn to help out and soak in the experience and teachable moments!
It's SO fun to be in the kitchen, our little ones are usually eager to help in mixing, sprinkling, and rolling. Being sure an adult is always nearby and handling any sharp objects and hot surfaces, baking and cooking activities are a gold mine of language skill boosting opportunities. The many benefits include taste testing (of course!), language building, exposure to new experiences, quality time with your child, and of course, a tasty treat or meal in the end!
For this particular post, I will provide some quick ideas for vocabulary building during a BROWNIE baking activity. Who doesn't like brownies?
The text in blue will provide ideas to target language skills and vocabulary building to incorporate during your baking fun with your child!
The recipe below was adapted from Tiffany on PeanutBlossom.com. Be sure to check out her site for more delicious ideas.
As a side note/bonus while baking, I love this set of baking tools that have verbs such as "scrape" "flip" "mix" to boost the fun and learning (also, they are just adorable).
Brownie Recipe:
INGREDIENTS and TOOLS:
place each of these out on the counter, label each and talk about whether they are a type of "food" or a type of "tool" . If your child is older, you can get into fractions!
INGREDIENTS
-encourage your child to SCOOP, MEASURE, MIX and POUR the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl, Emphasizing the verbs you are using
nonstick spray or 1 tablespoon butter softened to prep the pan
½ cup (1 stick) of butter + 2 tablespoons (melted)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs (talk about "cracking" the egg, what color is the yolk?, how does a raw egg feel?-slimy/squishy)
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup chocolate chips melted (talk about the difference between melted and unmelted chocolate chips, how do they look, how do they feel, do they taste the same? )
¾ cup flour
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder ( is cocoa powder a bit "bitter"?)
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup mini chocolate chips ( if you have them, you can include standard size chocolate chips and mini chips and talk about size "bigger" "smaller"
TOOLS:
9x13-inch pan
measuring spoons
measuring cups
mixing bowl
whisk
microwave safe bowl
spatula
oven
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Grease a 9x13-inch pan by spraying or rubbing softened butter all over the inside of the pan. (if using nonstick spray or softened butter that is not hot to the touch, allow your child to spread it around the pan, talk about how it might feel "slippery" and why we do this in preparation to bake.)
Melt the remaining butter.
Add the sugar to a mixing bowl and pour the melted butter in, whisk together until combined. (encourage your child to add and mix, they will love this part!!)
Add the eggs and vanilla to the mixing bowl and whisk together until combined.
Add ½ cup chocolate chips to a microwave-safe bowl and heat on HIGH for 15 seconds. Stir and continue to heat in 15-second increments, stirring each time until smooth and melted. Use a spatula to scrape all the chocolate into the bowl with the sugar, whisk together until combined. (due to hot chocolate, adult should handle this part but narrate what you are doing step by step so that your child hears lots of language)
Add the flour, cocoa powder, and salt into the mixing bowl and stir together until there are no dry pockets of powder. Add the remaining chocolate chips and stir until combined.
Scrape all the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly into the corners. (highlight possible novel vocabulary of "scraping" and "spreading" and descriptor "smooth" )
Bake for 30 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean. Brownies can be eaten warm but let them cool for at least 5 minutes before cutting.
The taste test is the BEST part! Enjoy the ooey, gooey, chewy, rich, decadent, sweet dessert ( all very fun descriptors to use when describing your sweet treat!
I hope you've enjoyed this post and have some speech and language spark up in your kitchen! Special thanks to Tiffany at peanutblossom.com for her delicious recipe.
Happy baking, cooking and communicating,
Liz
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