Learning

​

There's so much learning in cooking!

It's pretty amazing when you think about it, but there's actually so much to learn when you cook. And with a young person of Lexie's age and learning profile, it's pretty fundamental to follow her interests. Here's a quick summary of the key areas of learning that we've focussed on so far:

​English

• Reading the recipe and understanding what you've read - in order to follow it
• Talking about the recipe - asking questions about parts that you don't understand 
• Expressive language - describing how the ingredients taste, their textures, and how the meal makes you feel
• Reading the ingredients list aloud clearly - speech production 
• Writing a list of ingredients in alphabetical order
• Writing a list of ingredients in neat handwriting
• Planning the recipe out in steps - chronological order (1. do this, 2. do this etc.)
• Researching other similar recipes - finding differences between two different recipes for the same dish
• Writing the recipe for a specific audience

Maths 

• Reading the quantities of the ingredients
• Reading the times and temperatures
• Weighing out the ingredients
• Timing the cooking
• Modifying the quantities - doubling and halving 
• Counting the number of ingredients in the list 
• Pricing the ingredients 
• Working out how much change from £5/£10 etc. you would get if you went to the shop to buy the ingredients
• Working out a price per portion (if the ingredients for the cake cost £5 and it serves 10 people, how much does each portion cost?)
• Slicing the cake into equal portions, halves, quarters, eighths etc. (BBC Bitesize functional skills)

Science

• Identifying healthy recipes verses treats
• Planning a balanced menu for the day and the week
• Researching food groups (BBC Bitesize is great for this)
• Observing changes (the homemade cheese is great for this)
• Predicting what will happen when something is changed 
• Evaluating how well the recipe turned out (we score each one and explain why we've given it that score)
• Taking accurate measurements, timing, temperature, weights, volume etc. 
• Growing seeds for specific ingredients - we've grown tomato plants from the seeds of a cherry tomato!

Computing 

• Using technology purposefully to create a website 
• Store and retrieve digital content - mainly saving, downloading and uploading photos 
• Modifying digital images - editing the photographs so that they are the right size, colour etc. for the website 
• Understand what algorithms are by following precise and unambiguous instructions (a recipe is an algorithm)
• Create a simple algorithm (or recipe)
• Debug a simple algorithm (or recipe) work through the steps and find mistakes and improve them
• Use logical reasoning to predict the behaviour of simple recipes
• use technology safely and respectfully, keeping personal information private; identify where to go for help and support when they have concerns about content or contact on the internet or other online technologies.
• Understand  the world wide web and the opportunity it offers for communication and collaboration 
• Use web 2.0 technologies (like a blog) to create and publish original content 
• Use social media safely 

There are lots of other ways to connect cooking to parts of the curriculum including:

• Geography - Finding out about the origin of ingredients and recipes 
• History - Finding out about recipes from certain periods in history
• Art - Inspired by ingredients or dishes
• RE - Symbolism in food, food associated with celebrations