Food and Talk

At Children's House Nursery School we know how important real experiences are for children to develop language.
We have been supporting children at snack time and through a range of adult led experiences to express themselves as they handle and taste food.

A group of children have been developing independence in following a recipe to make flatbread. Children were encouraged to identify the ingredients and explore them, handling them, smelling them, tasting them and talking about them. Some children had been part of this experience before and were encouraged to 'remember' the learning. Much of learning is helped by remembering and recalling and we support children with this every day in their learning.  Children washed their hands, rolled up their sleeves and got mixing and kneading the mixture, shaping it into small, round, flat pancake shapes.  Children used language to describe the texture: "wet" "sticky" "dry" "icky" was some of the vocabulary used. Children showed perseverance and concentration as the process took a few stages: from mixing and shaping, to proofing and cooking the flatbreads in a pan. Some children selected toppings to create mini-pizzas which they then baked in the oven. Children then shared and talked about what they could taste.

Another group of children were supported to express their opinions and respond to their sense of taste. Children were introduced to vocabulary such as "sweet" "salty" "spicy" and "sour".  They then explored a range of food: identifying it and saying whether they remembered seeing or trying it before. Children were so interested in tasting the small samples: lemon, salty rice cake, a chilli flavoured crisp and chocolate (a tiny piece!) After each one, they talked about how it tasted and have begun to use the vocabulary above to relate to them. They also expressed whether they enjoyed the taste and smell and why. Some children are beginning to speak in sentences now!

Can you help your child to talk about their learning?
Please remember to borrow their Special Book and take it home to talk about all the wonderful learning they do at Children's House.
Look at old family photographs too and talk about past experiences together.
Children also love to hear about what they were like when they were babies and toddlers so share this with them.