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Practical life in the kitchen

14 Comments Preschool, Kindergarten, 1st Grade

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I am pretty new to Montessori education, but I really appreciate its focus on teaching young children practical life skills. I feel that practical life activities very much address the “self-care” building block for kindergarten readiness.

The kids love helping me in the kitchen, so I have used this to my advantage to provide them with some practical life work that builds fine motor skills. Here are two practical life activities we have done in the kitchen.

Note: For more activities that use Montessori principles in the home, see my Montessori Activities page. 

Practical life in the kitchen: Simple kitchen tasks kids can do to develop their fine motor and practical life skills #Montessori || Gift of Curiosity

Slicing bananas

Occasionally the kids and I make a wonderful, no-dairy, banana ice cream. The first step to make this dessert is to slice up the bananas. This task offers a perfect opportunity to practice a very practical life skill: cutting things with a knife. I demonstrate for the kids how to hold the (not sharp) knife, and how to angle their hand and arm as they cut.

QBoy is getting pretty proficient at this skill, and can generally cut some very nice slices.

Practical life in the kitchen: Kids can slice bananas to develop their fine motor and practical life skills #Montessori || Gift of Curiosity

XGirl is still developing the motor control to do this activity well.

Practical life in the kitchen: Kids can slice bananas to develop their fine motor and practical life skills #Montessori || Gift of Curiosity

But no matter what their slices look like, we sure enjoy making banana ice cream from our work!

Practical life in the kitchen: Kids can slice bananas to develop their fine motor and practical life skills #Montessori || Gift of Curiosity

Zesting an orange

Recently I was baking some cookies that called for zest of orange as an ingredient. I decided to show the kids how to zest an orange using a small grater.

They worked on positioning their hand on the orange and pushing the orange into the grater with enough force to scrape off the peel.

Practical life in the kitchen: Kids can zest and orange to develop their fine motor and practical life skills #Montessori || Gift of Curiosity

They worked on turning the orange every so often to scrape a new section of the peel.

Practical life in the kitchen: Kids can zest and orange to develop their fine motor and practical life skills #Montessori || Gift of Curiosity

What have your kids done in the kitchen to build practical life skills? Please share your ideas and posts in the comments.

More Montessori resources

More Montessori posts from Gift of Curiosity:

  • Apple Montessori activities
  • Farm Montessori activities
  • Pirate Montessori activities
  • Winter Montessori activities
  • Easter Montessori activities
  • 4th of July Montessori activities
  • Halloween Montessori activities
  • Montessori caves unit
  • Practical life activities using food
  • Montessori mapping activities
  • Montessori living / nonliving / once living activities
  • Montessori sandpaper letters


Foe more Montessori ideas, see my Montessori activities page and my Montessori Pinterest board.

Follow Gift of Curiosity’s board Montessori on Pinterest.

Filed Under: Preschool, Kindergarten, Fine Motor, 1st Grade, Montessori Tagged With: cooking with kids

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Reader Interactions

14 Comments

  1. Nicole (Mama to 4 Blessings)

    January 4, 2013 at 5:15 am

    those are great learning skills! Feel free to link up @ Learn and Link! Have a great weekend! http://mamato3blessings.blogspot.com/2013/01/insect-observation-insect-leaf-crafts.html

    Reply to this comment
  2. Kylie @ Octavia and Vicky

    January 6, 2013 at 3:04 am

    My little girl loves helping in the kitchen too and I love knowing that I’m teaching her life long skills. We also love some home made banana ice cream, I wrote about our ‘recipe’ this week 🙂
    Visiting from The Sunday Showcase x

    Reply to this comment
    • Katie

      January 7, 2013 at 9:51 pm

      Such a simple recipe but so delicious as well!

      Reply to this comment
  3. Erica @What Do We Do All Day?

    January 6, 2013 at 9:53 am

    Great post. Cutting bananas was also one of the first kitchen skills I taught my son.

    Reply to this comment
    • Katie

      January 7, 2013 at 9:51 pm

      My kids get so excited when I invite them to help cut bananas. I love how much fun they have with this task!

      Reply to this comment
  4. Susie at Earning-My-Cape

    January 7, 2013 at 7:45 pm

    I love when kids help and learn in the kitchen! I will be featuring this at my next Super Link Party on Wednesday! I hope you come check it out. 🙂

    Reply to this comment
  5. Deb @ Living Montessori Now

    January 7, 2013 at 9:46 pm

    What wonderful food preparation activities! And your photos are adorable! Thanks so much for linking up with Montessori Monday. I featured your post at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/LivingMontessoriNow

    Reply to this comment
  6. Amy

    January 8, 2013 at 4:24 am

    What wonderful ideas! My son loves to cut cucumbers and bananas too, and grating will be a fun new step today 🙂 Thanks for sharing.

    Reply to this comment
  7. Carrie

    January 11, 2013 at 7:35 am

    So fun and so important. My daughter has a chopper similar to what they use at her Waldorf School to help chop vegetables for soup and other dinners. Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!!

    Reply to this comment
    • Katie

      January 11, 2013 at 8:47 am

      I’d love to know what kind of chopper they use at a Waldorf School.

      Reply to this comment
  8. Rebecca

    January 14, 2013 at 10:46 am

    Great ideas for teaching independence. I think need more practice because I always cut myself on graters!

    Thanks for linking to the Sunday showcase

    Reply to this comment
  9. Montessori Mama

    January 2, 2015 at 7:57 pm

    More great ideas. Thanks again.

    Reply to this comment
  10. Faye

    March 18, 2015 at 10:41 pm

    There really is no such thing as a Chinese Chicken Salad but that is what they call it so we put different ingredients in bowls and the kids put what they want in their own bowl. They learn how to serve themselves with small serving spoons. They like to make their own mini pizzas using English Muffins deciding what they want to put on their pizza. Also making tossed green salads. Why have I not tried bananas? I have a lot of little plastic forks. Tomorrow! Thank you Katie.
    Faye

    Reply to this comment
  11. Jennifer

    January 30, 2019 at 1:57 am

    Thanks for the great post. It is perfect for my son

    Reply to this comment

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I help parents who are transitioning into homeschooling shed old mindsets and embrace their homeschooling superpowers so they can create a homeschool they love where their children will thrive.

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