Dr. Seuss is on the loose with all kinds of kindergarten readiness learning activities. So far posts have looked at rhyming and creativity. Horton Hatches the Egg is one of my favorite books. I remember reading it to my little sister as a bedtime story, but I had to skip the part with all the city names. Instead of hatching an egg today, how about having little “Hortons” help us cook up some eggs? Or a recipe that uses eggs?
Cooking with kids has lots of learning ingredients. Here is a short list:
- Language: explaining and vocabulary.
- Math: measuring, counting, comparing and sequencing are just a few.
- Science: some basic skills include asking and predicting what will happen, seeing changes, observing, and building basic knowledge such as liquids pour, eggs have shells, etc.
- Reading: while kids won’t be doing the reading they will be seeing that grownups read and that printed materials have meaning. This meaning-print connection is fundamental for learning to read.
- Social/emotional: when cooking together, kids add to their sense of self-worth. They enjoy feeling like they are helping (even when it might be more help if we could do it by ourselves.) There’s sharing, taking turns, and patience added in.
- Physical development: stirring, picking up small items, and scooping are a few of the ways to develop fine motor muscles.
- Safety: kids learn about all kinds of safety such as not touching hot objects, letting grownups use sharp objects and more.
Horton’s list of cities could be much longer, so could the list of learning and readiness for kindergarten fun that happen when cooking with kids. What will you and your “Horton” cook and learn?