sarahtravers
I know for many pancakes are a staple for breakfast, particularly on the weekend. But for others, they may be kept for pancake day or holidays.
In our house they are more of a treat and we have now started a tradition of Santa pancakes on Christmas eve.
Pancakes are super easy to make with even the youngest of kids. They can easily help with making the batter and then have an adult help with the frying.
What do you need for the recipe
For this recipe you will need:
1 cup of flour (plain/all-purpose)
1 cup milk
1 egg
pinch of salt
toppings of choice!
Why cups and not grams?
To help young children with being able to actually cook and read a recipe with as little adult input as possible, cups are much easier.
To use grams (or oz) children have to have a grasp of much larger numbers and use the scales. Whereas with cups it’s very visual in front of them, they will quickly understand full and empty and it’s a really easy cvc (constant-vowel-constant) word to read.
They will move onto scales eventually but there is enough cognitive load going on for little kids in the kitchen that cups make it much more accessible for them.
A little bonus too. I often write down ‘1/2’ to introduce what the looks like and then they can begin to understand what half a cup looks like and what fractions look like as well.
How can my child be independent?
Setting up your kitchen for success will help your child’s independence. Making sure they are at the right height, have only the tools they need in front of them, and have a growing understanding of what ingredients look like will help them become more independent. Check out ‘how to set up your child for success in the kitchen
If this is your first try at a recipe with your child, they are going to need guidance, but the more they do they will quickly become independent.
Showing children how recipes work and building this up over time helps them to understand print in this environment. Eventually, they will take a recipe and do it all by themselves. All of the read-to-cook visual recipes use the same format so that it is predictable and children can focus on the reading and task at hand rather than also try to process how the recipe is set out.
How does a read-to-cook visual recipe work?
After getting frustrated with trying to use leveled decodable reading books at home with my own daughter we needed something different. In the classroom, as a reception teacher I have created visual recipe cards that used a mixture of images and carefully selected words that were at the stage of reading the children were at. They were then able to follow the recipes with little input from me and truly have an immersive learning experience.
So I started creating them for my own daughter. And she was developing her cooking and reading skills at the same time. It made reading practice easy (fewer battles as a parent), purposeful, and delicious.
Each recipe comes with:
- Specially designed recipe cards with words and phonics patterns carefully chosen using my experiences as a teacher and reading tutor
- 3 levels of reading -from a beginner with only a few single sounds and lots of images upto readers who are getting the hang of reading but still need a few visuals
- A quick reading level check to help you know which stage to start your child with
- Adult guidance notes – these include support for the parts of the recipe that needs support for both the cooking and reading side
Is this recipe for at home or in classrooms?
It could be used for both. The focus is to be used at home (as is perfect for homedders) to help families. But it could easily be used in small groups and make several batches.
Are you ready to get started with the recipe? Grab it here and I would love to know how you got on! Take a photo and tag me in your creation on Instagram @yourlearningvillage.