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Making our own muffins
At BestStart Beckenham we provide an integrated Be School Ready curriculum that focuses on 7 key areas; Fostering Lifelong Learning, Strong and Healthy Bodies, Curious Minds, Communication, Sense of Self and Belonging, Literacy and Numeracy and Language and Culture. These key areas contribute to an inclusive environment that encourages a love of learning, establishes self-management skills, masters both fine and gross motor skills and promote exploration and discovery. During our four-year-old Be School Ready session today the challenge was set to our four-year-olds to prepare banana chocolate chip muffins by following a picture prompt recipe. Each step of the recipe was displayed on a board with text, numbers and pictures, together as a team the group went through the series of baking instructions, taking turns at adding ingredients, mixing and measuring, mashing bananas, cracking eggs, stirring and spooning the mixture into the muffin tray. There was lots of verbal communication amongst the group, discussing how much of each ingredient they needed, the smell of the batter, the changes in texture and when it was time for the all-important chocolate chips.
Eva “We are following the recipe with eggs and bananas. We have to squash the bananas first. And put it all in the cupcake tray”
Amber “We need to smash the banana, I got to take the skins off. And crack the eggs. The oil goes in the cup then in the bowl with the other stuff and then we mix it all up. Then Jessica will put it in the oven to cook.”
Xavier “We are making cupcakes with muffins, oil, water, cups, bananas, eggs and chocolate chips (pointing to recipe board) and then we cook and eat them all up”
This activity was child led with minimal teacher intervention to support and encourage the development of independence. Our junior master chefs were abuzz with pride after preparing their very own muffins. Each of them got to take home of muffin just for them, the rest of the muffins were shared with their peers at late snack time. Our next learning step is making our own pizzas for lunch with an excursion to our local supermarket to buy the ingredients we need.