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Setting up an after school cookery club for 4-7 year olds. What to cook in an hour please?

27 replies

AnyoneForPimms · 09/06/2011 09:46

Hi,

Fed up that children don't seem to do enough cooking in schools these days I have suggested to my DD's school that we set up a cooking club.

I am running this after school with the help of 3 teachers so small groups of 5 children each.

Can you come up with quick to make, maybe no cook receipes that the kids will enjoy making within one hour to include a bit of clearing up?

We have access to small cooker and hob.

Thanks.

I really want this to work as all places were taken within one hour of news letter going out and there is a waiting list already!!

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littleducks · 09/06/2011 10:33

Scones
Coleslaw

At school dd has made veg noodle stir fry, wholemeal raisin muffins, elderflower cordial.... I think her lessons are an hour or less.

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alegre · 09/06/2011 10:34

Hi
That sounds like a good idea. Funnily enough I was wondering about doing something similar but with older kids. 4-7 seems little.

This has a couple of smoothie recipes and some couscous recipe
www.spottygreenfrog.co.uk/school-cookery-club-recipes-from-the-wyvern-school/a-60

This is about cooking clubs but appears to be aimed at older children
www.letsgetcooking.org.uk/Home

What about Annabel Karmel for ideas?
www.annabelkarmel.com/kids-cooking

Otherwise all I can think of is chocolate recipes eg. chocolate crispies, malteser chocolate fridge cake.
Or make their own pizza. They obviously don't have time to make dough but they could assemble their own pizza - learn about tomatoes, cheese, different ingredients. But if you have a small cooker that might be tricky - some might not get to cook their pizzas!

Hope someone comes along with some brill ideas for you

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alegre · 09/06/2011 10:42

Oooh. Do have a look at the spottygreenfrog site 'cos it's even got recipes for clubs with no ovens:

www.spottygreenfrog.co.uk/recipes-for-cookery-clubs-with-no-ovens-/i-98

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redskyatnight · 09/06/2011 10:55

DS's (infants so same age range) school uses the recipes on Let's Get Cooking. DS has made some quite exotic things!! I admit that whilst I understand they were little, I was disappointed how little he actually did. e.g. they made a vegetable curry - each child had one vegetable each to prepare, then the teacher cooked it.

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jellycat · 09/06/2011 12:08

We have no access to a cooker so do things that we can assemble with them, then they take them home to cook. We do bread (it rises while being transported home), pizza, pasta bake using quick-cook spaghetti, oven-bake risotto, BBQ sauce, choc chip cookies and some cakey things. Some of the recipes came from the CBeebies website. We ask them to bring in cake tins or a baking sheet to take their food home on. For the bread, the risotto and the pasta bake, we use the foil trays you can buy in supermarkets (like some takeaways use).

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JemimaMop · 09/06/2011 14:07

What about soda bread rolls? Very quick to make (and squishy fun) and if you make rolls rather than a loaf they don't take long to cook. I use the river cottage recipe.

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TheMitfordsMaid · 09/06/2011 14:08

Welsh Cakes?

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JenaiMarrHePlaysGuitar · 09/06/2011 15:04

Honeycomb - there's a recipe here on MN I think. Hang on I'll find it... here it is

DS often makes muffins using a ludicrously forgiving and simple recipe from this boys' cookbook

I'm a bit Hmm about the gendering but it is a pretty good book and has recipes for "real" food, not just Rice Krispie cakes and whatnot.

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JenaiMarrHePlaysGuitar · 09/06/2011 15:06

this is a better link to that book I posted about above.

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grovel · 09/06/2011 16:18

You might like to Google "Open Futures (Cook It)". Helen Hamlyn might give you a grant!

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MerylStrop · 09/06/2011 16:20

totally fab idea
if I get enough oompph from somewhere I might suggest it to our school

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AnyoneForPimms · 09/06/2011 18:46

Looks like the cooker is no go.

Tried out some cheese straws today and they took forever to cook. Sad

Any other no cook recipes please?

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gordongrumblebum · 09/06/2011 19:13

Little cooks

Little Cooks is a small business that runs extra-curriculum cookery classes in Bucks/Berks/Oxon. I'm sure they would be quite willing to give you some ideas if you are from miles away. One of our governors phoned them the other day and got loads of info!

They run cookery classes without using an oven, which sounds quite a benefit!

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JenaiMarrHePlaysGuitar · 09/06/2011 19:24

Is that just the oven though?

There's plenty you can do on a stove!

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gordongrumblebum · 09/06/2011 19:35

I think (and I do mean think - wasn't paying full attention!) that it's cold cookery (may / may not include microwave). The web-site doesn't specify, but they do say that they do sweet and savoury things.

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AnyoneForPimms · 09/06/2011 20:08

Your link doesn't work Gordon Sad sounds really useful

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gordongrumblebum · 09/06/2011 20:13

www.little-cooks.co.uk/
Is that better? Grin

If not, just google Little Cooks - it came first on my results.

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iEmbarassedMyself · 09/06/2011 20:15

What about small individual cheesecakes?

or these?

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AnyoneForPimms · 09/06/2011 20:18

Thanks Gordon. Brilliant. I'll email them for some help x

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southofthethames · 09/06/2011 20:59

Pizzas (with ready made bases).

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southofthethames · 09/06/2011 21:04

Can you preheat the oven while the instruction and preparing is going on? Anything with a 10 minute cooking time should be fine, they can wash hands and tidy while the cooking happens. Or you could do pancakes and omelettes but you'll have to be the one doing the frying......though they'll prob enjoy tossing the pancakes in a (different, cold) pan(s). Can search the Cbeebies programme "I Can Cook" (see the cbeebies website) for ideas. And use ready made ingredients when you need to shorten prep time?

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JenaiMarrHePlaysGuitar · 09/06/2011 21:22

jellycat's suggestions are excellent.

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hammybobs · 09/06/2011 22:15

Have a look at the recipes from the I Can Cook tv show

www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/icancook/makes/

I volunteer at my DD's old nursery (she's in p1) and do cooking with the kids. I've pinched a couple of things from that website, and picked up recipes here and there that fit with the limits of the resources available at the nursery.

The things I've done are potato cakes, strawberry cheese cake, lentil soup, banana & honey flapjacks, pizza muffins, cookies, reindeer cakes, fruit salad and I can't think of the rest! I don't know what resources you have available but have a look at this link for utensils that the kids love using

www.kuhnrikon.co.uk/co-uk/en/products/kinderkitchen/kinderkitchen.html

The knives are not sharp enough to cause injury (unless someone is really determined Grin ) so no fingers being sliced off etc. I let the pre-school kids use them to cut up fruit or veg e.g. banana, strawberries, peeled apple etc.

I've also got a set of these which they love

www.spottygreenfrog.co.uk/Childrens-Cooking/Cooking-Utensils-&-Bowls/Set-of-Childrens-Cooking-Utensils/p-92-144-334/

Good luck, it's great fun!

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AdelaofBlois · 10/06/2011 15:39

Am YR1 teacher tasked with running 15-child (on rotation) Yr1-6 after school cookery club, all these suggestions good, as is Can't Cook Won't Cook (on tudou a lot). Hope experience might help:

Practically, I got utensils by appealing to parents for spare bowls, spoons etc. rather than having the PTA fork (excuse pun) out, on the understanding they'd be returned (nothing broken). The youngest children have ingredients weighed and chopped for them and put in ramikins, Ikea cups etc. so all they have to do is mix. I cook food that needs pre-cooking beforehand (we did a communal shepherd's pie with pre-cooked mince and potatoes, but they mashed, mixed and layered it). They break eggs into cups first so any shell can be removed, then tip them into bowls. You'll need to be well prepared so that participants' parents can check for culturally or medically unsuitable ingredients in advance, and be aware of some odd stuff (for instance, we had to get permission to do dippy with cake mix since it technically contains raw eggs).

Issues that I haven't yet resolved to my satisfaction are: smallish oven, and impracticality of cooking on hob even to show-group size is key here. The other is that an after school club means you'll have to fill anything over about 10 minutes cooking time with something.

I was a bit loathe to go as you did for all all cold food or quick assembled food (which tends to be only snacks or puddings) so sometimes the poor sods get stuff relevant to the food prepared-where it comes from, how farms work etc. for 10-20 minutes each time I want to cook something with a longish cooking time. We also spend cooking time thinking about what we've cooked and how it might make a meal or menu healthily (which sometimes gives hints about where to go next). I think that is educationally valid, and should be part of what 'cooking' is, but worry its tedious. If teachers are involved this sort of thing is something they might be able to help with this to allow you to extend cooking times a little.

IMO, it would be better as a lunchtime club or to take (especially that young) some time out of the afternoon with really-say at choosing time for Reception and YR1-not as an afterschool club, since that lets them prepare food and then do something else while it is cooked, picking it up at hometime. It also saves the school from the insurance burdens of having to have extra staff around to supervise you.

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MamminaB · 13/11/2019 23:39

Hi AnyoneForPimms, did it all work? how long did it take you to setup?

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