Children's Cooking
We have a beautiful kitchen for our pupils.
Each child gets to prepare, cook and host a meal each year. Below are the menus, photos and skills they learn for each year group.
Year 3
Principles of a healthy and varied diet
- I can explain what makes a healthy lunch including: - types of filling for bread, water as a drink, fruit in the flap jack, 50/50 bread, baked hand-made crisps and vegetable bag
- I understand that my body needs a certain amount of sugars for energy
Cooking techniques
- I can handle a small knife safely and correctly (cutting and washing up)
- I understand that different chopping boards should be used for different food groups
- I can knead dough into bread rolls
- I can use the bridge technique for cutting
- I can use a potato peeler safely. I know that I must peel away from myself
- I can weigh a range of ingredients accurately using an electronic scale
- I can cut a carrot into chunks
Understanding of seasonality and ingredients
- I understand that foods such as bread and crisps can be homemade rather than processed
- I know that potatoes are vegetable and that they are grown in the ground
Year 4
Principles of a healthy and varied diet
- I understand that meat is part of a varied diet
- I understand that in this recipe, pork can be substituted with other meats or meat substitutes
- I understand that my plate should comprise of different colours
Cooking techniques
- I can cut raw meat, using the correct chopping board and an appropriate knife
- I can cut a carrot into small round pieces (Vichy)
- I know how to boil potatoes and I can mash potatoes
- I can mix ingredients together
- I can hand roll and shape gnocchi (soft)
- I know how to make pastry using the ‘rubbing in method’
- I know how to line a pastry tin
- I can handle a rolling pin to roll pastry
- I can zest and juice a lemon
- I know how to lay a table correctly
Understanding of seasonality and ingredients
- I can explain how foods should be stored
- I can explain why foods are labelled with ‘best before’ dates
- I can explain the information that should be presented on packaging, in accordance with EU law
- I understand that pork comes from a pig
- I understand that food is imported from around the world
Year 5
Principles of a healthy and varied diet
- I understand that nutrients come from foods: why our body needs them, what they do and which foods we can find them in
- I understand that healthy diets must incorporate a varied range of foods
- I can talk about some of the tips suggested by the foods standards agency
- I understand that the recommendation is to eat 7 fruit/vegetables a day
Cooking techniques
- I can follow a recipe
- I can use eggs, herbs and breadcrumbs to bind mince together and roll into balls
- I understand that I must have the right consistency when mixing semolina and water to make pasta
- I can hand roll pasta (stiff)
- I can cut with precision when cutting the pasta into equal parts
- I can use a garlic crusher
- I can apply different skills when preparing salad e.g. tearing lettuce and cutting cucumber
- I can use the creaming method to make sponge
- I can explain when I know that a sponge is cooked
- I know how to lay a table correctly/present food for guests
Understanding of seasonality and ingredients
- I am aware that most foods can me homemade rather shop brought
- I understand that beef comes from a cow
- I understand that meat can come in many forms such as minced and joints/frozen and fresh
Year 6
Principles of a healthy and varied diet
- I understand that while food has changed over the years, the basic requirements to keep our bodies alive still remain the same
- I understand that 33% of my diet should be filled with fruits and vegetables
- I can identify the sections of the ‘eat well plate’ and evaluate whether my daily diet falls within the guidelines
- I understand the positive and negative impacts of saturated fats
Cooking techniques
- I can handle raw chicken correctly. I understand that chicken is the most dangerous of all meat groups
- I understand that different parts of a chicken give different flavours
- I can use electrical equipment safely (grinder)
- I can use an appropriate knife to cut vegetable batons precisely
- I can shred cabbage
- I can use a piping bag in the correct manor to make potato towers
- I can use a microwave to melt chocolate successfully.
- I can crush and mix ingredients at the right temperature t make a smooth paste
- I can use a sieve for a variety of purposes
- I can lay a table/present food independently and hold conversation at the dinner table
Understanding of seasonality and ingredients
- I understand that most foods can me homemade rather shop brought
- I can explain some key differences between food during the rations and food today
- I understand that some foods in the green section of the Eat-well plate may not be as healthy as they could be, depending on the way they are cooked
- I understand that today, most foods can now be grown in the UK using modifications such as greenhouses