August 2, 2013
Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!
Friday is pizza day at Lund’s Early Childhood Education program. The older toddlers make pizza every week to share with the entire center for lunch. This process starts the night before when the children learn how to mix together yeast, salt, sugar, flour and water to make the dough. They then check in on their work on Friday morning and are able to see how the dough has changed over night. This is a practical opportunity for the teachers to talk to the children about the chemical reactions between the acid and alkaline ingredients that cause the dough to rise and also a lesson in patience as they need to wait until the next day to get to the fruition of the project.
On Friday morning, the cooking process starts as the children get to work spreading the sauce on the dough. This usually takes hands, not spoons or any other sort of kitchen implement and so can get a little messy. The teachers are unperturbed and simply put plastic sheeting down on the floor and let the children get to work. They experiment with different flavor combinations and really try to incorporate as many local and fresh ingredients as possible. Past specials have featured cauliflower and parmesan crust with sauce and cheese, quinoa maple crust with avocado cream sauce, pizza with zucchini crust and toppings such as apples, pineapples, olives and peppers.
Sometimes they need to go to the store to pick up ingredients for these creative specials and so the whole class takes a field trip down the hill to the grocery store to pick up what they need. This often results in an excited announcement from the chefs to the other shoppers, “We’re making pizza today!” This is a chance for the children to practice the social skills needed to ask for assistance at the deli counter and to wait in line. It also allows the opportunity for conversation around where food comes from and what represents healthy choices.
This week the Pizza Day Special was pesto, chicken, mozzarella, ricotta (Broccoli and cauliflower….shhh, the children didn’t even notice).
The pizza is shared by everyone for lunch and has become a beloved weekly tradition at LECP. The children feel directly engaged in the process and as a result often eat more of this meal than others as they feel pride in their work. And who doesn’t love pizza?
June 19, 2013
Plants for Lemonade – Basic Economy and Ecology in Lund’s Early Childhood Education Program
What do you get when you mix lemon juice + water + sugar + Lund employees? Tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, onions, beans and flowers, of course!
How does this all add up?
The older toddlers and their teachers recently pursued a novel way to acquire plants for their newly established raised beds by running a homemade lemonade stand where the refreshing treat was handed over in exchange for a plant for their garden. Setting up outside Lund’s new building at 50 Joy Drive, the children encouraged staff members to stop by and try their lemonade. They had plenty of willing customers who handed over tomato plants, strawberry plants, carrot seeds and more.
Early childhood educator, Laura Murphy, explained that there was also a strong educational component behind this exercise as well as it being a great way to fill their garden beds. “It’s about social interactions for the children and it is also about responsibility and following through on the commitment that we made to the community. They might not necessarily want to be making lemonade all day but we said that we would be here so we need to follow through on that. There is also a lot of science involved. We experimented with lemonade recipes and the children practiced measuring and adapting the quantities to make the lemonade taste good.”
The children were enthusiastic in greeting their customers, handing over lemonade with fancy straws and receiving the plants for their garden. Having a firm connection to the food that they eat is an important aspect of the nutrition program at LECP.
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