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Cooking Fun with Aspire Cobblebank Chefs

Cooking can be an enjoyable experience for young children, offering numerous benefits for their growth, learning, and development. At Aspire, we provide cooking programs and activities for various age groups that foster lifelong skills and promote healthy eating habits.

At Aspire Early Education Cobblebank, they offer cooking experiences for the children on a regular basis with their amazing centre chefs Gurjit and Simran.

Learn more about some of the recent cooking experiences at Cobblebank, and the benefits of cooking in early education.

Cobblebank’s Cooking Experiences

Vegetarian pizza

As part of Cobblebank’s cooking experiences with chef Gurjit, the toddler children in the Investigators room made vegetarian pizza. They used ingredients such as mushrooms, capsicum, spinach, pineapple and cheese to make some yummy pizzas!

During this cooking experience, chef Gurjit focused on enhancing children’s understanding of the healthy and nutritious ingredients that were used to make the pizza. The children tasted the fresh ingredients and enjoyed this week’s cooking class.

Fresh orange juice

Recently, the children in the Inventors room (3 & 4 Kindergarten) made fresh orange juice with chef Simran. They used a juice squeezer to squeeze the juice out of the oranges before enjoying a nice glass of it!

During this activity, they discussed the health benefits of oranges and the nutritional value. Squeezing orange juice also helps children to develop strong muscles in their hands and fingers and improve their motor skills.

Fruit cake

The children in the Leaders rooms (4 years old kindergarten) also participated in a cooking class recently with chef Gurjit. They made healthy and nutritious carrot, banana and sultana cake for afternoon tea and were excited to design their own chef hats. They poured and mixed the ingredients together before spreading it in a cake tin.

This also helped them develop strong muscles in their hands and fingers and improve their motor skills.

Check out some of the photos below of these cooking experiences!

Meet one of our Cobblebank Chefs!

Gurjit is one of the amazing chefs at Aspire Cobblebank. She is originally from India and has been passionate about food since childhood. Gurjit has a master’s in literature and loves literacy, however her love for food and cooking is in her heart and mind. She followed her desire to cook and came to Melbourne and completed an education in commercial cookery from Holmes collage. After completing that, she worked as a chef at a restaurant “AMIGOS” Mexican cuisine for 10 years. After that I came to Aspire Cobblebank as I wanted the opportunity to cook a diverse menu.

Gurjit enjoys working at Aspire Cobblebank and having the opportunity to cook for her educators and children.

Why Implement Cooking Experiences?

  • Provides the opportunity to explore different foods: At Aspire centres, we offer nutritious meals featuring diverse food groups that children may not have encountered before. Involving children in cooking exposes them to various foods and flavors, encouraging them to try new ingredients and tastes they might not experience at home.
  • Builds basic math and literacy skills: Cooking helps children enhance their basic math skills through activities such as counting eggs or measuring water. Reading recipes together introduces new vocabulary, boosting their literacy skills.
  • Allows children to follow directions: Learning to listen and follow instructions is a crucial life skill. When children cook, they follow verbal instructions from our center chefs and educators based on recipes. Whether they are reading recipes or drawing the steps on paper, this process helps them practice following directions and listening carefully.
  • Explores their senses: Cooking engages young children’s senses. Activities like mixing ingredients, rolling dough, watching it rise, and smelling the food as it cooks enhance their sense of touch, sight, and smell.
  • Promotes health and hygiene: Hands-on meal preparation offers an excellent opportunity to discuss food and its nutrients with children. This helps them understand which foods keep their bodies healthy. Additionally, cooking and cleaning up teach children about hygiene, including which foods to wash and how to wash their hands properly before, during, and after cooking.

If you’d like to book a tour of our Cobblebank centre, speak to our team on 1800 978 429 or book a tour online here.

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