First Cookies Made by Children

This article, originally published in the Ukrainian journal “Dytyna i svit” (2018, №9), describes a detailed scenario for an introductory culinary activity with preschool children. The focus is not only on baking cookies, but also on building social, emotional, and cognitive skills through rituals, play, and shared experiences.

1. Rituals and Emotional Readiness

• The class begins with a finger play and greeting song. Children clap, stretch, and move their hands, which helps them calm down from previous emotions and become fully present in the activity.

• This ritual teaches children to focus, feel connected to the group, and understand that they are starting something special.

2. Sensory Exploration

• Before baking, children explore flour through touch: sprinkling it, drawing on it, and feeling its softness.

• This creates a positive emotional connection to the ingredient and builds sensory awareness.

3. Interaction with Dough

• Children are encouraged to knead, roll, and shape dough.

• A small math element is introduced: dividing the dough into equal parts (“How many pieces do we need so everyone gets one?”).

• They also use cookie cutters to make animal shapes, which develops fine motor skills and imagination.

5. Clean-Up and Responsibility

• After baking, children and teachers clean up together.

• A short song makes tidying up enjoyable and ritualized, reinforcing the value of shared responsibility.

7. Gratitude Ritual

• The activity ends with a short verse of thanks, recited together.

• This final ritual teaches children the life skill of gratitude — for the activity, for each other, and for the shared experience.

4. Social Learning While Baking

• Baking becomes a “workshop of human relationships”:

• Children learn to ask each other for tools instead of grabbing.

• They practice calling each other by name.

• They accept or decline help respectfully, and express gratitude when receiving it.

• In this way, the kitchen turns into a training ground for empathy, cooperation, and respect.

6. Practical Experiment: Where Flour Comes From

• The teacher introduces a mini experiment: children hold real wheat stalks, remove grains, and grind them in a small hand mill.

• This tactile experience helps children understand the long journey from grain to flour, and value bread as the result of real work.

• It also deepens respect for food and the effort behind it.

Key Insight

Through this activity, baking cookies becomes much more than cooking. It transforms into a holistic learning experience where children:

• explore with their senses,

• practice math and motor skills,

• develop empathy and cooperation,

• learn responsibility,

• and gain respect for food and human effort.

Quote from the article:

“Thus, the process of making cookies turns into a “workshop of human relationships,” where children learn to cooperate, to respect themselves and others. They practice addressing each other by name, asking for help, accepting it with gratitude, and refusing imposed assistance.”