Equipment (3-5 Years)

Learning

The aim of this session is for children to:

• name a range of kitchen equipment;
• explain how different pieces of kitchen equipment are used.

You will need

• A range of kitchen equipment, e.g. measuring jug, chopping board, mixing bowl, kitchen scissors, rolling pin, cutters, oven gloves, grater
• Kitchen equipment cards – if you do not have kitchen equipment available, you could use these cards
• A box in which to hide the equipment – with a lid or piece of material to cover the contents
• Kitchen equipment jigsaws – cut out (and each piece of equipment cut into three parts), laminated (optional)
• Terrific tuna tarts recipe (if undertaking Activity 2) - you will need equipment and ingredients to make this recipe. Alternative recipes are available from the Food – a fact of life website in the Recipes area.

Listen and respond

Explain to the children that you have some equipment in the box and you are going to see if they can guess the name of each item. Slowly lift a piece of kitchen equipment from the box so the children can see a small part, e.g. a handle.  Ask them to guess what the item is. Reveal the item and discuss it with the children using the following questions:

• What is this called?
• Have you seen it before? If so, where?
• What does it do?
• Does it have any sharp parts that we would need to be careful with?

Choosing equipment that does not have any sharp parts, ask for a volunteer to come and mime how the piece of equipment would be used, e.g. stirring with a spoon.  Ask them to explain what food they could prepare with this piece of equipment, e.g. I could stir cake mixture with a spoon.

Repeat this with all the equipment asking different children to help.  You could just use six pieces of equipment and repeat this activity another time with the rest of the equipment.

Have a go

Activity 1 - small groups.  Ask the children to complete the Kitchen equipment jigsaws. You may wish just to use a few of the jigsaws at one time. Mix up the different parts of each piece of equipment and get the children to match the parts correctly. Question the children to reinforce what each piece of equipment is called, e.g. what do you think this jigsaw will be when you have found all the parts? As the children become more familiar with the equipment, you could use more jigsaws at one time. 

Activity 2 – Set-up a cooking activity so the children have the chance to use different pieces of kitchen equipment. You could start with Terrific tuna tarts which uses a selection of equipment, including a chopping board, cutters, patty tin, oven gloves, mixing bowl and kitchen scissors. This simple recipe will give the children chance to practise naming some simple pieces of equipment and learn how they are used.

Consolidate

Call a child to the front to choose a Kitchen equipment card, without showing the other children.  Get the children to mime using the piece of equipment and see whether the other children can guess what the child is doing and the piece of equipment he or she is using. 

Reviewed August 2024