Every year, I have my class make banana pudding. This is a “cooking” activity, as well as a fine motor activity because the children have practice slicing the bananas with a knife. This is one of their favorite activities because they love to slice the bananas!
We use dull edge knives, such as butter knives. Plastic knives might work , but I like to use the sturdier, metal ones. They can be purchased in many discount stores at 4 for $1.00.
Ingredients:
Bananas (one half per child)
Vanilla Pudding (one cup per child)
Vanilla Wafers (about 4-5 mini vanilla wafers per child)
Whipped Topping (optional)
Other Materials:
Dull Knives
Plastic Spoons
Paper Plates
Wet Wipes and/or Napkins
Cups or Bowls
Directions:
- First, have the kids put vanilla wafers in a clear punch cup (the mini vanilla wafers are great for this).
- Second, spoon the vanilla pudding from a pudding cup to their punch cup, on top of the vanilla wafers.
- Third, slice half a banana and put the slices in the cup.
- Optional: Add some whipped topping.
- Enjoy!
More Slicing:
To extend slicing practice, add some slicing activities to your centers. You can find educational toys made especially for this where children can cut fruit or cut a sandwich. The toys are made with Velcro to attach the play food together and then children use a dull knife to slice the food apart. These make a great fine motor addition to the House Center.
I’d love to hear from you! What are some slicing activities you have done in your classroom? Share in the comments.
I like to do this as well, however, I divide the group in two. The other group has a shaking job. Put pudding mix and milk in a large butter bowl. They pass it around in a circle shaking the mix. Then the two groups switch. It lets me keep eyes on those butter knives. :0 )
That’s a neat idea – thanks for sharing, Tammy!
Karen;
I love your site and refer to it often. I am a first year Preschool teacher who was put into the postition a day before school started. I made it through the year, I have to admit pretty well, I think. I am just gettting ready to do preschool screening. Can you give me some feedback on what you use and how you do it.
Jan Brown
janalbertbrown@gmail.com
Hi Jan, Thanks for visiting! Glad you had a great first year in Pre-K. At the school where I teach, we don’t do a screening. We use an assessment system called the Work Sampling System. The Kindergarten teachers do come in and screen all the pre-k kids. It’s a basic screening on letters, letter sounds, shapes, counting, numeral identification, concepts of print, etc.
I love your website. I use id weekly for my preschool lesson plans. You have awesome ideas that the children love. Keep doing what you do! I appreciate your emails also. They often lead me to something that I never thought of and I always like what you offer and introduce.
Thanks, Ivy! Glad you and your students benefit from the site!
I just love your work with preschoolers!!! I am recommending that all my teachers follow you on instagram and subscribe to your website. You have so many fun and developmentally appropriate activities. Your love for children is clearly reflected through your work. Thank You!
Sonia Turner
Harmony Preschool
Detroit, MI
Thanks so much – for the nice comments and for recommending my site to others!
You are awesome!!!! Thank you so much for sharing. I have done so many activities with my students….
Thanks so much, Susan!
This will be great for my children in Summer Camp –
One week we will be cooking and this will be a safe and easy project
Thank you,
Claudia
Thanks, Claudia! Glad you like it!
Ok, you’re making me think I should buy some real butter knives this summer… We use plastic knives to cut a lot of different things: potatoes, onions, celery, tomatoes for vegetable soup; eggs for egg salad; fruit for fruit salad; cooked potatoes for potato salad (we cooked the foods for our end of the year picnic); apples for applesauce… I could go on and on. You’d be surprised how much those little knives can actually cut. I include the same kind of knives in my play dough center. The kids are constantly cutting and “cooking” the play dough. Love your site btw! I’ve gotten TONS of ideas from you.
Thanks for sharing, Gretchen! I will have to try those ideas – my kids LOVE to cut!
I love your website. It gives me awesome ideas for my preschool class. I would love to try this and we will. Our class specially loves your real life picture cards. Thanks always for awesome ideas.
I know kids will love doing this. I have great cookbook called”Six Ingredients Or Less” that I use a lot for cooking ideas. It would also be fun to put ground up graham crackers as the base. Kids could put the graham crackers in a baggie and crush them or pound with wooden mallets and then pour into their plastic cup. If you do don’t like bananas…try strawberries.
Thanks for sharing your great ideas
I’m a pre-school teacher who starts work very recently.I always used to search the new things for kids,because when they experience something new their coordination for the work is really high. I enjoy by looking at their shining faces.They always love to explore the new things…:) Well, I made a Fruit salad in my class room and they enjoyed really well…Now I’m going to share your this experience with them and I strongly believe that they will love this more than their first experience. :))
Thanks, I hope your students enjoy making banana pudding!
I have done some cooking activities that I get recipes for online like…
cake
pie
hot chocolate pudding
and ext.
but I don’t think I have done any cutting so THANK YOU
I give the children white plastic knives to chop apples which we put in a crockpot to make applesauce. The kids are good at chopping and feel so good about being trusted with knives. I’ve never had anyone get hurt. I do slice the apples first and give them the slices to cut into smaller pieces.
working with Special Ed students its sometimes challenging finding recipes that allow them to participate and stay safe at the same time.. Thanks Karen
This looks like so much fun! Question, do you do cooking activities like this in small groups? And if so, does everyone do them on different days? I’m wondering how you prep that because I would imagine you would get a lot of “When do I get to do that??” questions from members of other small groups.
Hi Leanna, yes I do them in small groups and the kids do them on different days. I do have kids who want to know when they can cook, but I always remind them (and they know by routine) that they will all get a turn. At times, I’ve done cooking activities at centers. I’ve also done one cooking group at small group and then finished out the rest of the kids at center time. (Our small group and center times are two separate times on our schedule.)