This article is from the source 'washpo' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/preschoolers-learn-how-to-cook-and-teach-their-families-a-thing-or-two/2016/03/08/b95076fa-e56c-11e5-bc08-3e03a5b41910_story.html
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Preschoolers learn how to cook, and teach their families a thing or two | Preschoolers learn how to cook, and teach their families a thing or two |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| There’s a certain optimism that comes from watching pre-kindergarten students learn to cook. To hear 3- and 4-year-olds using words such as “ingredients” and “measurements” is a reminder that children are often smarter than their tender years might suggest. | There’s a certain optimism that comes from watching pre-kindergarten students learn to cook. To hear 3- and 4-year-olds using words such as “ingredients” and “measurements” is a reminder that children are often smarter than their tender years might suggest. |
| “You are not babies. You are young chefs,” Vera Oyé Yaa-Anna, a nutrition educator, told a pre-K class at Leckie Elementary School in Southwest Washington recently. Impressed by their new, grown-up-sounding title, the kids actually began to take on a more mature personas, offering a glimpse of the adult under construction within them. | |
| “What color is spinach?” Oyé asked. | |
| “Green!” the children screamed, delighted as much by their learning prowess as their chef’s outfits, complete with toque. | “Green!” the children screamed, delighted as much by their learning prowess as their chef’s outfits, complete with toque. |
| Oyé, a native of Liberia, works with Frann Robertson, an early-childhood-education specialist at Leckie. Together, they have built a virtual pre-K curriculum around preparing healthy meals. Food, as it turns out, can be a phenomenal teaching tool. | |
| “Just mention food and you get their undivided attention,” Oyé said. “Everybody likes to eat, and children at this age really enjoy learning how to make something good to eat.” | |
| Preparing and serving food helps the students sharpen their social skills. And, of course, eating healthy can actually jump-start a child’s cognitive and physical development. At Leckie, improved nutrition, both on the cafeteria menu and in student’s choices, is credited in part with recent gains in academic achievement. | Preparing and serving food helps the students sharpen their social skills. And, of course, eating healthy can actually jump-start a child’s cognitive and physical development. At Leckie, improved nutrition, both on the cafeteria menu and in student’s choices, is credited in part with recent gains in academic achievement. |
| “When we talk about food preparation, we’re using lots of new words and math skills,” Roberston said. She calls the cooking class “free-range learning” because students get to move from one subject to another, depending on what catches their attention during the process. | “When we talk about food preparation, we’re using lots of new words and math skills,” Roberston said. She calls the cooking class “free-range learning” because students get to move from one subject to another, depending on what catches their attention during the process. |
| “If students come in feeling sluggish or tired, we talk about the role that food plays in boosting their energy or bringing it down,” Robertson said. “If you don’t feed your mind with knowledge, you will be lost. But if you don’t feed your body with healthy foods, your mind won’t be able to take in the knowledge you need. They learn how everything works together.” | “If students come in feeling sluggish or tired, we talk about the role that food plays in boosting their energy or bringing it down,” Robertson said. “If you don’t feed your mind with knowledge, you will be lost. But if you don’t feed your body with healthy foods, your mind won’t be able to take in the knowledge you need. They learn how everything works together.” |
| The work of Oyé at Leckie is funded through the Far Southeast Family Strengthening Collaborative. She began conducting healthy-food workshops throughout the city in 1998 and operates through her nonprofit called Oyé Palaver Hut. (Palaver Hut means “cultural hub of the village” in West African villages.) She incorporates cooking lessons and storytelling designed for children age 2 to 5. | |
| How it all began is pretty remarkable. | How it all began is pretty remarkable. |
| “I was telling some kids about the food and culture where I was born, in Africa, and a little boy asked where my food came from,” Oyé recalled. “I told him that I lived on Capitol Hill and asked him, ‘Where do you think I get my food?’ He said ‘You hunt your food in Rock Creek Park.’ I said, ‘Whoa, we’ve got some teaching to do.’ ” | |
| So she took the children to Eastern Market, bought some fruit and vegetables and prepared a meal. Some of the kids had never seen an avocado and couldn’t identify a tomato or broccoli. But they enjoyed the meal and asked her to show them how to make it. | So she took the children to Eastern Market, bought some fruit and vegetables and prepared a meal. Some of the kids had never seen an avocado and couldn’t identify a tomato or broccoli. But they enjoyed the meal and asked her to show them how to make it. |
| Not all kids like the taste of healthy foods. At least not at first. | Not all kids like the taste of healthy foods. At least not at first. |
| “It may take them five times of sampling a certain vegetable and experimenting with herbs and spices before they develop a taste for it,” Oyé said. “That’s because their taste buds have been affected by all of this junk food.” | |
| The most popular food for kids seems to be fried chicken and macaroni and cheese. So Oyé teaches them how to broil chicken and make macaroni from scratch. (She had to explain what scratch means). And she uses guava fruit juice as a sweetener instead of sugar. | |
| On the day I visited the school, the students had prepared a special luncheon for Oyé as a way of showing their appreciation. The meal included jambalaya, a green salad and chips and a spinach dip. | |
| “What’s in this salad that tastes so good?” Oyé asked. | |
| “Avocado,” the children replied. | “Avocado,” the children replied. |
| Oyé was clearly pleased. But what she finds most satisfying usually happens when the children are at home, showing off what they’ve learned. | |
| “They’ll tell the parents, ‘No, that came from a box. Let me show you how to make it from scratch; let me show you how to make it real,’ ” Oyé said. | |
| Not babies, not even at 3, but young chefs working on recipes for life. | Not babies, not even at 3, but young chefs working on recipes for life. |
| To read previous columns, go to washingtonpost.com/milloy. | To read previous columns, go to washingtonpost.com/milloy. |