Cake Theme
This week’s theme will involve learning about cake. This includes kitchen time, learning about ingredients, and colors.
Princess Ashilyn is having a Rainbow Party!
Baking:
Princess Ashilyn might be a princess, but her parents think every good princess should know how to cook. Try this cake with your toddler or preschooler—and check out the other recipes on this blog meant just for cooking with youngsters:
Rainbow Cake
Check the right hand side of this page (on my site) for children's books about cakes.
Did you have fun making the cake? Try my list of recommended food sites for children and their parents.
While the cake bakes, sit at the table and read a story about kitchens:
In My Momma’s Kitchen
In My Momma's Kitchen (Paperback) by Jerdine Nolen (Author), Colin Bootman (Illustrator)
Then help your child dictate and illustrate his own story about your family kitchen. Put a few words on each page and let him illustrate it. It may take a while to get all the pictures done. Write the story on one page first. Then sit down and decide how to divide it up. When you're finished, put it in a report cover with a clear plastic cover (so he can make the cover himself.) Put it on your bookshelf and use it for story time along with other books.
If the cooking session didn't go so well, try this recipe for aspirin cake
As long as you have the flour and things out, try making homemade clay for your little ones. Allow them to make a pretend cake and other items for a doll party.
Teach your children to measure
Counting:
Birthday cakes have candles and candles can be counted. Print out a picture of a cake and let your child color it. Put flannel or pellon on the back. Do the same with candle pictures. Let your child put the cake on the flannel board or the floor and then add candles, one at a time. Count them together.
This site has a very simple cake without candles you can start with.
Addition:
If your child is ready to add, you can use the candle to introduce the concept. After all, adding is really just a form of counting. Put a flannel board picture of a child (such as Princess Ashilyn) on the board. Say, "This was the princess's cake when she was just one year old. How old will she be next year? Yes, One (point to candle) plus one (put second candle on the cake) equals two. You can follow that up by putting flannel numbers and symbols to show what the equation looks like. Don't test your child or even expect her to remember this. You're just introducing concepts, because whenever she happens to be ready, she will understand it. Showing it often just makes sure the opportunity is there when she's ready.
Colors:
Naturally, this is all about the cake and the frosting. Give your child white frosting in small bowls. Let her add food coloring to the bowls and identify the colors with your help. If you'd like to teach art, show her how to combine the colors to make new ones.
Decorate cupcakes (miniture ones give you the most opportunity) and frost them with the various colors. Let her choose which color she wants.
The Letter C:
Cake starts with a C, so it's a good letter to teach today. You can let your child use the homemade clay to form C's. Can she turn her whole body into a C?
If your moon is a sliver, go outside tonight and look at the c in the sky.
Make cupcakes (which start with a C) and decorate them with things that start with a c. You can probably find small toys or cake toppers for cats, candy, clouds, cookies, and cars. If this is your first introduction to the letter, stick to the hard C sound (that sounds like a K) so as not to confuse your child.
When you're making the cake, print the recipe in a large font. Help your child find all the C's in it.
Science:
Baking is all about science. Science is my weak spot, but this book should help. There is an experiment involving baking soda at the end of it:
