Healthy Cooking Lesson Plans

Cook and Learn the Science of Cooking, Gardening and Cooking Math

Jul 28, 2008 Lisa Russell

Homeschool cooking classes can teach math and science. Try these cooking ideas and cooking games with your family for cooking lesson plans you can eat.

Cooking and science go hand in hand in a homeschooler's kitchen. The agricultural science of growing food in a garden, the chemistry of mixing ingredients, the physics of cutting and baking, the senses involved in tasting and smelling and the biology of nutrition and digestion are all endless ingredients for homeschool cooking lesson plans.

Cooking Math

Every chef knows that ingredients must be carefully measured and or weighed. There are specific measuring devices for liquids and solids. Measuring cups, often made of glass, have lines on the side for measuring the volume of liquids. Measuring scoops are usually stackable, and come in a variety of sizes for measuring solids and semi solid substances. Measuring spoons are suitable for small quantities of liquids and solids. A weighted scale is a great cook and learn tool, but cooking classes can go on without a scale.

Cooking Science

Keeping a vegetable garden is a great way to teach life science, and some parents believe that a child who has grown a vegetable is more likely to eat what he's grown.

In baking, each ingredient contributes to the final product. What are the consequences of leaving out an ingredient? Is the cake dry and crumbly, or watery? What are the properties of each ingredient and what happens to them in the oven? When foods are cut differently, do they cook differently? Cooking and gardening are great science fair projects.

Cooking Ideas for Teaching Math and Science

European recipes and several online cooking recipes are presented with metric measurements. Teach your child how to use a conversion chart, or purchase metric measuring devices and create your own conversion chart. Experiment with concepts of molecular weight by comparing volume and weighted measurements of ingredients.

Oil is thicker than water, but does an 8-ounce volume of water weigh more or less than an 8-ounce volume of oil? Why?

Tuck away random measuring scoops. How can you measure 2 1/2 cups of flour with only a 1/4 measuring scoop?

Cooking Games

Dressing up as a chef can add a bit of social studies to your cooking lesson plan. Invite a few homeschooled friends over and turn the kitchen into a mini restaurant. Creating a menu and assigning jobs like waitress, bus person and host can also be fun.

Cooking games are even televised. When ingredients are running low, challenge your kids to invent a recipe using whatever is on hand. If you have more than one child, they can write their recipes down and compete to see which one will be served for lunch.

Healthy Cooking

Comparing ingredients in various recipes and learning about the nutritive properties of foods can encourage children to eat healthier. Challenge kids to reproduce their favorite recipes in a healthier way by using alternate ingredients.

Use these cooking ideas in your homeschool lesson planning. Recipes from historical time periods and different cultures can turn cooking lessons into a memorable unit study, or can supplement your curriculum. Whatever method of homeschooling you use, chances are your family is eating, too. Cook up a homeschool cooking lesson plan today. Bon Appetit.

The copyright of the article Healthy Cooking Lesson Plans in Homeschooling is owned by Lisa Russell. Permission to republish Healthy Cooking Lesson Plans in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Exotic Foods Can Help Teach Social Studies