KinderCare Learning Center

  For my unsupervised field experience, I was able to find an opportunity at KinderCare Learning Centers, where I am currently employed during summer. Each week, there is a group of children that are signed up to participate in a cooking activity. This summer, I was able to plan a monthly theme with recipes, create newsletters for advertisement, and lead the cooking class each week. I really enjoyed this experience as I was able to teach kids about how to follow recipes and learn various cooking techniques. For the month of June, I created a picnic theme that included the recipes of watermelon salsa with cinnamon tortilla chips, apple pie bites, fruit pizzas, and a dill pickle salad. For July, the theme was copy cat restaurant recipes which consisted of Olive Garden's Chicken and Gnocchi Soup, Red Lobster's Cheddar Biscuits, Panera's Mac & Cheese, and Cracker Barrel's Coca Cola Chocolate Cake. Lastly, the month of August consisted of refreshing drink recipes. This included a blueberry lemonade, pink lemonade, cotton candy punch, watermelon breeze, and a shirley temple drink. In addition to making these recipes with the children, I also ensured that we made enough of each recipe for the kids to take home to their family, along with a recipe and a picture of the child enjoying their cooking. I feel that it is essential that children are involved in kitchen activities at a young age because it exposes them to making meals from scratch, which can be the healthier option compared to processed or pre-packaged options. Overall, this was a fun activity for the children and I was able to help teach them important skills about cooking that they could use in the future.