Half Way Full

It is crazy to think that my practicum is already more than half way over. I still feel like I am just getting to know the kids. However, the steps I have taken so far to maximize my experience is to make sure everyone is having fun. Getting to know the children’s eating habits gave me a sensible idea on their outlook on health in general. It is always a fun time cooking and making snacks with them. So far most of the kids are hungry learners and are willing to try whatever we make as a group.

For the beautiful season of fall in Keene, Hannah and I had some cooking ideas revolving around pumpkins. We made pumpkin bars and a pumpkin dip. The pumpkin bars were delectable. The kids mixed in chocolate chips and gluten free oats with pumpkin sauce along with other spices. All of the kids loved their creation and so did I. My favorite project so far has to be the pumpkin bars.

The pumpkin dip had similar feedback to the veggie dip we made earlier. However, since we used graham crackers to dip, the flavors were more exhilarating when mixed with the pumpkin dip.

Our most recent project was english muffin pizzas. For this recipe we made our first template about the food. It includes the ingredients, directions on how to make the food and a few health benefits from it.

The kids were given halves of english muffins, pizza red sauce, mozzarella cheese, chopped up peppers, broccoli and mushrooms to add to their mini pizzas. Surprisingly more than 2/3 of the kids put veggies on their pizzas. One girl came up to me saying “I love mushrooms!” I just starting eating mushrooms last year. These kids keep surprising me.

The easy part of this "internship"is that cooking simple snacks doesn't take much effort. What can be challenging are kids who are stubborn and choose not to participate. This takes time away from other kids who are interested in the given cooking project. However, it is fun to see a huge smile on a child's face who enjoys crafting healthy snacks.