Within the social zone over the last few weeks, it has been observed that the children have had an increased desire to bake. Through doing this the children have further developed their confidence, independence and self-help skills. Some children have displayed leadership skills and have been role models for the younger children who have not long started within the service in giving them support to collect, prepare and follow individual recipes. The children have been intrigued by the various baking tins, one child stated, “I want to use the circle one”. This then led onto a discussion about what else could be made in a circle baking tin. The children shared their thoughts, feelings and ideas. One child then said, “cheesecake” which then sparked curiosity for the other children. From this they were keen to explore using digital technology to further research and create their own recipes.
A group of children initially started off by looking for the ingredients on a supermarkets website which the children identified as Asda. Using the computer some of the children were able to recognise icons to direct us to the Asda website and use the images to add the ingredients to their basket. Some of the children were very curious about how we pay online. From this a deeper discussion about money and how it is used arose, developing an understanding of coins and notes with the children beginning to recognise these. Simple addition and subtraction was spoken about as a few children recognised, “getting change”, this naturally led onto the children adding and subtracting different quantities of ingredients on their online shop.
The discussion turned to how to pay online. The practitioner continued with this by explaining how you use a bank card, and you already have money on this to pay online. We researched a little about log in details and how a username and password keeps all saved card details safe and only you know your own password. Naturally from this the children were speaking about different websites; some children had a very good understanding of using the internet safely. The children seemed to enjoy this responsibility. This has led to children now taking ownership of stock rotating the cupboards in the nursery and ordering weekly the baking and snack shopping, noting the desired amounts and quantities needed on their shopping list.
