Play-Based Kindergarten
updated April 9, 2016

Cooking with Children:

The Montessori catalogue For Small Hands is a wonderful resource for child-size tools in the kitchen and around your home! We love the Olivewood Nutcracker and I ended up buying one for each child.

Involving children in cooking is a valuable part of every early childhood curriculum, so you'll be able to find plenty of resources. There are Waldorf cookbooks but, to be honest, you do not really need them. They exist to fill that market for all things Waldorf:

Simply find a recipe that has child-safe steps. If all else fails, giving your child a sinkful of water and having her scrub and scrub all of your vegetables is excellent Kindergarten work and a great help to Mom and Dad besides!

"A Grain a Day" Article - the Waldorf rhythm of nutrition


Some Favorite Simple Recipes


Earthways has recipes in it and if you purchase several of the books I've recommended for your Library -- All Year Round and A Child's Seasonal Treasury -- you will have even more!

Chapter 2 of Seven Times the Sun: Guiding Your Child Through the Rhythms of the Day is called 'Round the Table and it includes

  • celebrating mealtime
  • simple rituals to celebrate mealtime
  • passageways for parents: mealtime
  • verses for mealtime
  • songs for mealtime
  • stories for mealtime
  • a mealtime tale to spin

Candy Verney's The Singing Day has songs for baking as well as a section on graces. My daughters' Kindergarten teacher had the children say grace before snack each day and they said, and memorized, a new grace each month. By the end of the school year the children had learned a lovely selection!


Picture Books

I have a separate section of my picture book library just for books which have recipes included in them, or for which baking or cooking something seems like a fun and logical fit. Also, ask your local librarian!

Here are the ones on my shelf; feel free to ask to borrow.


The Apple Cake
by Nienke van Hichtum



Pancakes, Pancakes!
by Eric Carle



All in Just One Cookie
by Susan Goodman



The Little Red Hen
by Paul Galdone



The Little Red Hen (Makes a Pizza)
by Philemon Sturges



Walter the Baker
by Eric Carle



Growing Vegetable Soup
by Lois Ehlert



The Ugly Vegetables
by Grace Lin



Bear Snores On
by Karma Wilson



The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear
by Don and Audrey Wood



The Unbeatable Bread
by Lyn Littlefield Hoopes



Moon Mouse
by Adelaide Holl



Sun Bread
by Elisa Kleven



Flicka, Ricka, Dicka Bake a Cake
by Maj Lindman



The Queen Who Couldn't Bake Gingerbread
by Dorothy van Woerkom



The Duchess Bakes a Cake
by Virginia Kahl



Nell's Elf
by Jane Cowen-Fletcher



Stone Soup

by Jon J Muth



The Magic Porridge Pot
by Paul Galdone
This is a great story to retell with a little house built of logs and a golden silk to pull out of the windows, as porridge bubbling and flowing down the street.


Mr. Angelo
by Marjory Schwalje


The Wiggler by Lisl Weil would go well with the "Making Butter" activity in Earthways, pp.142-143.
I put a marble in the jar (to be the froggie) while we were shaking the cream one time, and we shook it so hard that the marble broke the side of the jar and flew out... so I wouldn't recommend doing that!!!




Affiliate links through Amazon cover domain registration, web hosting, and website backup fees. This allows me to offer
my materials for free. Any extra revenue is used as our homeschool budget for the month. Thank you for your support!

Waldorf Curriculum Copyright ©2006-2024