Food Technology with the Apple Peeler

Making and enjoying food have always been part of our centre’s daily routine. Sometimes the children in my centre help the cook by peeling potatoes, carrots and pumpkins as she’ll cook them for lunch. In some wintery cold mornings, the children cooked their own sizzling ham slices on portable hot tops with the help of teachers.

Lately our centre manager introduced us to this great new tool. It is the Apple peeler/corer/slicer!!

It was like magic! We placed the apple onto the three-pronged fork of the apple peeler. Then as we turned the handle it began coring the apple. The apple now is sliced but still connected, like an accordion.

The children found this tool very fascinating and so did the teachers. As we found it interesting and fun to use we made sure that we spoke to the children about the importance of the apple skin in providing our bodies with fibre. This is to say that technology could also have some 'side effects'!

Despite the fact that we used technology for cooking with children, cooking itself is a great learning experience for children. It is interesting to note that cooking with children can teach children about Maths, Science and Language (Copley, 2000; Talay-Ongan & Ap, 2005). This is also greatly in line with Te Whāriki (Ministry of Education, 1996) which promotes ‘exploration’ with a variety of learning experiences that can be connected to the home environment. Arthur, Beecher, Death, Dockett & Farmer (2008) also encourage the use of real resources as it help children reflect on real life experiences.

Moreover, cooking with children always provides endless opportunities for meaningful discussions. It seems, with cooking we connect with the outer world (Ministry of Education, 1996). In this case it is either a grandma’s house or whānau who like or dislike some sort of kai.



Therefore, food technology is an important part of ECE daily program. As early childhood teachers it is our duty to provide children with these meaningful experiences.

Imagine 20 years from now when the child you are cooking with now, will remember you as a result of smelling some baking aromas that connected her/him back to their early years in the centre!