This year, I took on the challenge of starting a 4th grade cooking club at New Hampton Elementary. I thought I might be a little crazy allowing 9-10 year olds use very sharp knives, but I am proud to say after 7 successful cooking clubs, not one kid cut themselves using a knife!!
One of my main goals of the club, was to introduce kids to healthier cooking alternatives. This year we made mini pizzas loaded with fresh veggies, zucchini noodles, smoothie bowls, oatmeal cookies using bananas and unsweetened applesauce in place of sugar and butter, kale chips, energy bites, and for our last club, tacos with homemade guacamole. Although some kids start out a cooking club saying they won’t like what we are making, they almost always end up trying it and liking it.
Another goal is to for them to learn how to do basic cooking skills such as using a knife, proper seasoning portions, measuring, and reading a recipe.
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Normally, we do not use meat in our cooking classes, but at our most recent class, the kids learned how to cook ground beef to make tacos.
Overall, I have enjoyed working with this group of students throughout the year. Although it can be a little hectic sometimes, the end result is always worth it because kids love cooking!
