Sensory Cookery

On Monday afternoons we have exploration in sensory cookery using food based stimuli. The children have the chance to explore using their senses. They look at the materials being used, listen to the sounds they make, smell them, touch them and mix them, they also enjoy tasting the ingredients! The children can explore and create through the activity of play, often showing preferences through engagement in various parts of the session. This can be listening to the eggs crack, watching and listening to the milk being poured, looking at the flour being sprinkled down from above, using their hands to mix the materials separately then together giving lots of opportunity to feel a varied range of textures. They can smell the ingredients, sometimes the children will smile or scrunch their faces showing their like or dislike. This term we are concentrating on pancake mix, we use the basic mix ingredients then each week introduce a new ingredient for the children to explore further – spices, sugar, salt, and dried fruit. We go through the same routine each week so that the children can then anticipate what may happen next. The children will use their core vocabulary boards, speech and Makaton signing to communicate throughout each sensory cookery experience.

This week Jacob really concentrated when cracking the eggs, Kimberly and Fatima loved looking at the flour sprinkling down like snowflakes! Fatima and Ella really got their hands stuck into mixing… giggling at the mixture being so sticky and getting stuck to their hands! Ella, Peniel and Yahya showed how much they liked to smell the different spices, cinnamon was a definite favourite! Lacey loved watching and listening to the milk pour from up above, she liked the taste of the milk too! Aaron and Joseph weren’t as keen on the sticky substance, but they were both very curious and kept having a little sneaky touch without prompting.

Thank you for taking a look at what we have been getting up to, see you next week for more updates! Loveday and team xx