Cooking - Porridge Creations

You will need:

What to do:

• After reading The Three Bears, ask the children if they know what porridge is, and if the eat it or anything like it at home.
• Allow students to measure out the ingredients for porridge, following the recipes on the back of the oatmeal box.
• Cook the porridge over the stove or hotplate.
• Talk about some toppings that you could eat with porridge. Have the class contribute their own ideas for porridge toppings.
• When the porridge is ready, have the children serve themselves.
• Have toppings prepared for them to add to their porridge.

Open-ended questions:

• If the porridge is too hot, how might we cool it down?
• If it is too cold, can you think of different ways to make it warm?
• When did Mama or Papa Bear make porridge: breakfast, lunch, or dinner? When would you most likely eat porridge?
• What other names do you know for porridge?
• How would you describe porridge?

Variations/Extensions:

• Write porridge recipe cards for each child. On the card, let kids draw pictures and use creative spelling to write the toppings they would add.
• Create a recipe book in the shape of a bowl with pages of varying bowl sizes (small, medium, and large).
• Have them dictate their own recipes to adults in the classroom.

Related Resources:

• "Please Porridge Hot," from Treasury of Mother Goose Rhymes by Publications International, Ltd.
• Pretend Soup & Other Real Recipes by Mollie Katzen and Ann Henderson.
• The Children's Step by Step Cook Book by Angela Wilkes.

Suggested Benchmarks:

• Physical Development and Health: Participation in simple practices than promote healthy living and prevent illness.
• Math: Demonstrating a beginning understanding of measurement. Incorporating measuring activities into play.
• Science: Making comparisons among objects that have been observed.