by Clean Plate

As a teacher, especially of young children, it can be hard to maintain your 'mojo'.  So much is expected of you and with so little time, it is so easy to get bogged down and forget why we ever chose this profession in the first place,  but I am here to remind you that you chose it because you love it! You love watching those little minds work, you love seeing how they can take three sticks and some sand and use them in a completely novel way, you love the growth you can see each and every day, the new words, new movements, new ideas and ways of expressing themselves that these children continuously surprise us with!

For me, when I feel myself loosing my 'mojo', I fall back on my trusty friend messy play.  I love messy play for so many reasons:

• Messy play can be adapted for all age groups!;
• It's guaranteed to engage at least some of the children for an extended period;
• It's totally open ended;
• Much like cooking, it can allow the children to explore a wide range of maths and science concepts (weight, volume, changes of state/colour, viscosity, new vocabulary, etc.), and skills (mixing, pouring, scooping, turn taking etc.);
• It's simply fun! 

,Although messy play, in most cases, is completely open ended, I have found the children quite often mimic cooking when engaged in messy play.  Therefore,  I often offer cups, spoons, scoops, colanders, containers of all shapes, pots, pans and mixing utensils when providing messy play to the children.  This can be a great way to encourage practicing cooking skills and vocabulary without having to always offer cooking activities.  

Over the next few weeks I will be posting some ideas and recipes for messy play, along with suggestions for keeping it from getting TOO messy ;).  For those of you who are already into messy play, hopefully you can find some helpful ideas and suggestions, and for those of you who feel a bit to overwhelmed and bogged down by it all, give messy play a try!  The children will love it and you will love watching where they decide to take you!

By Clean Plate

These Mini Muffins are so quick to make and delicious.  Plus, there are infinite variations depending on the season and the tastes of the children!  Here we create two varieties, a sweet and a savoury, which pair well and look super Christmassy!

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200° C.
2. Mix the two types of flour in a large bowl.
3. Chop the cream cheese into small chunks and mash into the flour with a fork until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
4. Dice the strawberries and add to the mixture.
5. Add the brown sugar and milk and mix until it forms a soft dough.
6. Lightly spray down the muffin tins with the spray oil.
7. Spoon mixture into the tins and bake for about 15 mins

For the savoury version, our base is the same, but the additional ingredients differ.  As with the Strawberry Muffins above, the children can help all the way. Mashing, grating and chopping are all valuable cooking skills they can master with this recipe.  I usually ask them to use scissors with the spinach because it is easier and gives them snipping practice as well!

Serves 10 

Ingredients:
2 cups self-raising flour
2 Tbsps margarine (rather than Cream Cheese)
2 handfuls of baby spinach
1 1/2 cups grated Edam cheese
1 cup milk
4 cherry tomatoes, sliced

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200° C.
2. Mash the margarine into the flour with a fork until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Roughly cut up the spinach and add to the bowl.
4. Add the grated cheese and the milk, and mix until it forms a soft dough.
5. Lightly spray down the muffin tins with the spray oil.
6. Spoon the mixture into the tins, top with the cherry tomato slices, and bake it for about 15 mins.

By Clean Plate

Serves 10

Ingredients:
2 bananas
1/2 punnet of strawberries, washed  and hulled
1 1/2 cups watermelon
water (to help with blending and gain desired texture)

Method:

1. Quarter bananas and strawberries and roughly chop the watermelon. 
2. Add all the ingredients into the blender with 1/2 glass of water. 
3. Blend until smooth.
4. Add a bit more water, or ice, to thin it out if needed.

By Clean Plate

This is a great summer dish using seasonal veggies. The children can easily participate in the preparation of each element which will, of course, encourage them to try to final product!  This will serve 12 preschool aged children.
For this recipe you will need:

Guacamole:

• 2 medium avocados
• 1 tomato
• 1/2 small lime
• pinch of salt (optional)

Tortilla crisps:

• 6 mini tortillas, each cut into 6 triangles
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• canola oil spray

Have the children chop up the avocados into small chunks.

Remove the seeds from the tomato and chop into small pieces as well.  The children might require some help with this step. 

Place the diced avocado and tomato into a bowl and squeeze in the lime juice.

Mash away!  The children will enjoy this step and will be able to see the diced veggies turn into a spreadable dip.  Add the pinch of salt, if using it, stir and serve with the tortilla crisps and vegetable sticks. 

Strawberry and Cream Cheese Muffins

While making our herbed yogurt dip the children became interested in the herbs we had growing in the garden.  They asked if they could pick some so we went together and found a few; rosemary, parsley, oregano and a tiny bit of dill.  Once the herbs were harvested it was time to cook!!

There go those scissor skills again!  This play is not only engaging and wonderfully aromatic, it's a great way to get the children thinking about the garden, growing and cooking food, methods of preparing food and various other healthy eating topics. 

This girl decided to make a soup, so she added water and put her pot onto the stove.  Later she put on the lid to let it simmer for a while.  It looked and smelled delicious and allowed the children to practice a few new cooking skills!