Our new learning kitchen in Elementary serves a two-fold purpose, it is part of both our science curriculum and food technology curriculum.
Science Curriculum Connections
Not all science requires expensive and hard to find chemicals or fancy laboratories. At ISPP, we align the PYP science programme with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Our students explore the fun of science in own learning kitchen. Trying to comprehend the structure and properties of matter and energy may seem complicated, but exploring these concepts through cooking makes it fun and attainable for all our students. Students also learn basic measurement, conversion and counting skills when cooking.
Food Technology
At ISPP, we believe that our students need to learn their way around a kitchen, it is, after all, an essential skill for life!
- Our learning kitchen is a place for students to involve all of their senses. While kneading, tossing, pouring, smelling, cutting, and feeling foods they have fun and learn without being aware of it.
- Children learn life skills by practising basic math skills such as counting, weighing, measuring, tracking time; they also gain social skills by working together and communicating in the kitchen.
- Children who learn to cook gain a “sense of accomplishment”.
- Recent research indicates that nutrition knowledge may be incomplete without the experiential learning or hands-on activities associated with food preparation that involves handling food and cooking equipment.
- Teaching cooking to our students is an opportunity to teach nutrition education such as planning meals and make smarter food choices.
Last week, foreign language Mandarin Elementary students buddied up with their counterparts in Secondary to learn how to wrap dumplings. Everyone had time to enjoy dumplings they made. “Yummy” was the most popular comment!
Elementary students were guided by their older Secondary brothers and sisters. ISPP was really a “family” for the morning. Secondary students helped set-up and clean-up afterwards, too. Great moments, along with tasty dumplings were shared that morning!
For more photos, see Learning Kitchen album (Facebook).
