Learning in the Kitchen – Bread

The kitchen is a fabulous resource for any parent wanting to enrich their children’s learning at home. From talking about the information on packets, tins and bottles to getting out the kitchen scales and measuring the amounts needed to make dishes.

Bread is something most children have every day whether that is a slice of toast for breakfast, their sandwiches at lunchtime or a tortilla wrap for tea. Children will have come across a variety of bread products so why not spend some time learning a bit more about bread with your kids!

Provide a variety of breads and bread products with different characteristics from a variety of cultural traditions e.g. soft white, granary, wholemeal, sesame, poppy seed, chapatti, soda, pitta, flavoured – sweet or savoury. Discuss where they originate from and their general features. Encourage your children to examine and smell the breads, to name them, weigh them, talk about texture, appearance, shape and personal preferences. Taste the breads and record a star profile for each one for appearance, texture, flavour and cost. Which was our favourite bread? Why did we like it? What would we eat it with?

Discuss how bread is used in different ways in meals e.g. for toast, for sandwiches, to eat with soup, to scoop up curry. Which bread products are most suitable for which purposes?

Maths Activity: For one week, survey the types and amounts of bread eaten and how it is eaten or what it is eaten with e.g. toast or naan bread with curry. Then work out how much bread is consumed in your household per year. How much do you spend on bread each week, month and year?

Try making different bread recipes.

http://www.cookuk.co.uk/children/bread_easy.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/sodabread_82421.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/bananabread_85720.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/naanbread_89619.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/simplegarlicbread_4975.shtml

http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/514568 ( Fruit bread)

Next time we’ll be exploring how Pizza  can inspire children when Learning in the Kitchen!