The JK/SK children have been interested in restaurant play and over the past few months they have been talking about food and recalling the times when we made cookies and smoothies. We decided to do another cooking/science activity to practice our culinary skills and make something new. We decided on a fun way to make ice cream. The children mixed cream, sugar and vanilla in a bag and then added ice and salt to another bag. We sealed the cream bag and placed it inside the ice and salt bath. After we sealed the ice bag we proceeded to take turns shaking the bag and in turn we mixed the cream, sugar and vanilla together. The ice helped to freeze the cream to create delicious vanilla ice cream.
We decided to give the ice cream one more day to freeze and eat the next day when more of our friends were in attendance. The ice cream turned out perfect and it was really enjoyable. The children were talking amongst each other while eating and discussing the part that they had helped with during the ice cream making process.
The children had a lot of fun talking and communicating with each other. They felt proud and autonomous because they created something that worked out and that they could eat and share with their friends. The children learned new concepts such as thickening, frothing, freezing and absorption. We talked about the process that the ice cream goes through and that helped the children to understand that cooking is just science. We learned from an article that when salt is added to ice the ice melts more quickly and tries to absorb heat from the surrounding area like the cream, then the heat absorption cools the area and makes ice cream. Perhaps in the future we can do more science activities.
