Cooking on the Fire

Our spell of warm dry weather made us think of summer BBQs with our friends and families at Rachel Keeling. Children were involved in shopping at our local fishmonger for mackerel. They watched closely as he filleted and prepared the fish for us. Children read the recipe and were part of the process of preparing the mackerel for cooking. Slicing the lemons, adding the olive oil, grinding the sea salt and pepper for seasoning.  More children helped to build the fire, some who have been involved in previous garden fires were able to remember the process and used descriptive language and vocabulary such as 'kindling' and 'flint'. As wellbeing and safety is at the heart of everything we do with the children, most showed a sound understanding of keeping safe around fires.
The mackerel were wrapped in foil and cooked over the fire. This sensory experience offered sights, sounds and smells. The taste was shared across the three base rooms at story time with children enjoying the chance to eat the freshly cooked fish.
Many of our recent blogs have focused around learning in the garden - it truly is the jewel in our Rachel Keeling crown!