• washing hands
• pouring ingredients into a bowl
• beating and stirring the cake mixture
• spooning mixtures into cases
• decorating cakes
• Icing cakes
• keeping away from the oven
• cleaning up
I also aim for Kira to have lots of fun and enjoy the activity, especially as it is something she does not do very often.
Expectations
I expect that Kira will be excited about the activity. I believe that Kira will probably need some help pouring the ingredients into the bowl, but I think she will be able be hold the spoon and mix the ingredients quite well. I am unsure whether her motor skills will have developed sufficiently to be able to spoon the mixture into the cases or put the icing onto the cakes. I think it could be quite messy. I am also hoping that she will behave appropriately during this activity.
In Hall and Brennand 2006 it says that ‘children learn a lot by copying....’ so I will be doing it all first to show her and hope that she will copy.
Observations
Kira was quite happy to wash her hands before we carried out the activity saying ‘wash hands, nice and clean’ which tells me she understands why it is necessary.
We began by measuring out the ingredients and Kira was keen to help, she wanted to spoon the flour onto the scales, saying ‘me do it’. She had obviously done it before. She then showed good gross motor skills and was able to easily pour the contents of the scales into the mixing bowl.
When she was stirring the flour and sugar she knew that she had to rotate the spoon around the bowl. Kira only got a little bit of ingredients on the table which shows she can ‘use a spoon skilfully’ which according to Judi Sunderland is a milestone achieved at 2 and a half years. Her physical strength limited her ability to stir the mixture completely so i finished it off. After the ingredients were all mixed, I used a spoon to show her how to put the mixture into the cases. She did help me spoon the mixture in baking cases though found it difficult to make each spoonful equal.
In Brennand and Hall 2006, it says that by the time that children are the age of two years old they are becoming more independent, wanting to explore more and try to do things for themselves. Kira certainly demonstrated this, though at times she was very demanding as she knew what to do and wanted to do it.
She shouted ‘me do it’ and became quite cross when i tried to help her
sometimes. According to Judi Sunderland children at the age of two are very
egocentric and their ‘lack of control of emotions can result in temper tantrums’
When the oven was on, Kira and I went into the living room
(I did this for safety reasons as shown in risk assessment). Kira did seem to have an understanding of this too, saying ‘hot, burn you’. Whilst the cakes were cooling down Kira helped to mix the icing she then had a great time spooning the icing onto the cakes and adding the colourful hundreds and thousands. Kira found this fun and enjoyable but was very messy.
Evaluation
Physical development was better than i expected as she was able to use a spoon very well and could pour the ingredients into the mixing bowl easily.
A certain amount of mess was to be expected and is in line with the development of a two year old.
I was also able to take note of her language development which appears to be developing well. She is using more sentences than when i first met her. She was very talkative throughout the activity.
Kira did show many emotions that ranged from very excited, to being frustrated when I was trying to help her.
I also discovered that she was able to name many colours when she was using the hundreds and thousands though she was only able to pick out the pink and the white correctly.
Conclusion
I think my choice of activity was beneficial to Kira and that she was able to gain a lot from it. It was also very useful for me to learn more about how she is developing, what she knows and is capable of. This cooking activity was extremely varied and as it only took about 30 minutes it maintained Kira’s interest.
I thought carefully about the safety issues and as such the parents of Kira were happy for me to carryout this activity with her.
Planning sheet (link sheet)
For my visit I have produced a planning sheet. This is to show what
activities I am going to do with Kira.
This will include all the activities I am planning on doing with Kira
also includes what I will need for the activities and to see which of
the PIES I am looking into.
