Baking is not only fun and tasty, it is also FULL of learning opportunities for kids.  We have put together a few ways that you can use the kitchen as a classroom.

Personal Hygiene
Before any baking takes place, it is important to talk to kids about hygiene and cleanliness. Here are a few things you can note:

• Clothes should be clean/changed, especially if they have been outside or playing with animals.
• Long hair should be pulled back and secured.
• Hands should be washed thoroughly before starting.  Here is a great poster from the CDC that shows kids the proper steps to wash hands.  This should take around 20 seconds, or the time it takes to sing ABC's. 
• Touching of the face should be avoided while baking. If they touch their face, sneeze or cough, hands should be washed again. 
• Each time raw materials are handled (such as eggs and meat, hands should be washed again. 

Reading
Yes, you read that right.  Baking is a great way to sneak a little reading in!  

• Grab a favorite cookbook and pick a section to look through based on what you want to bake.
• Have kids read through the titles and mark a few recipes that sound interesting to them.  
• Once you have picked a recipe, have your child read the whole thing out loud to you, including the ingredients and measurements. 
• As you go through the list of ingredients, send them to the pantry to locate ingredients.  Some will be easy to find, but some might take reading the front of the package to locate.  
• As you proceed through the recipe, have them read each step out loud before they do it.  

Measurements & Fractions
This is a great time to pull out your measuring cups, spoons, and kitchen scale.

• The Home Baking Association has a GREAT printable activity page on measurements that uses critical thinking skills and math. Just click on the worksheet to download and print it!

Other ideas...​

• ​Have the kids line the spoons and cups up from smallest to biggest.
• Look at the labels on each cup, and talk about what it means.  Ask them a few questions about different ways you can add up to 1 cup (for example, "how many 1/3 cups would it take to equal 1 cup?")
• Use water to have them find out how many teaspoons equal a tablespoon, and how many tablespoons equal 1/4 cup etc...

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https://www.fda.gov/media/89325/download

Serving Sizes & Nutrition labels
Understanding how to make smart choices and read nutrition labels is a lifelong skill that will come in handy.  

• The FDA has several nice printable sheets for kids to learn about how to read the label and what each section means.  Click on the link to download and print.  

Ideas for activities:

• Get out two items that are similar and have kids point out the similarities and differences on the label.  (For example, two types of cereal)  Which one has more sugar, fiber, calories etc..?
• Get out the kitchen scale and measure out serving sizes for a wide variety of foods.  For example- how many crackers are in a 30 gram serving?
• Compare what 100 calories looks like in various foods.  Choose a wide variety to compare- apples, eggs, lettuce, chips, cereal, milk, cheese etc..