This March, Busy Bees will be launching an exciting new scheme in line with the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) called ‘Cooking with Me.’

‘Cooking with Me’ will involve groups of children working together to create recipes, and will encourage them to explore other activities, such as painting, dressing up and role play, based on their cooking themes. There is a sense of adventure in cooking for children and by extending the recipes into activities, we aim to make it a more memorable experience for the child

The scheme encourages children to cook from an early age, developing key skills outlined in the EYFS framework. Cooking is understood to develop skills such as time, measuring, counting and weighing, as well as introduce them to science by helping them to investigate, predict, experiment and observe. Cooking will require children to read recipe cards, sequence photos, introduce new words for foods and encourage opinion, helping to reinforce their language development.

The nurseries taking part in the scheme will receive a cookery pack containing; 14 recipe cards, a folder to store them in, a set of 10 actions cards outlining further activities to develop from cooking, 8 sets of children’s hats and aprons and a ‘cooking equipment’ kit. All the equipment provided will be designed for small hands to help them stir, whisk, beat, fold and mix.

The scheme will be initially launched at Busy Bees Nursery in Leicester, Meridian Park, before being rolled out across the group’s other settings.