How to Easily Teach Kitchen Safety in Preschool
One of our daily topics this week was Kitchen Safety. Since I always try to create my plans around my state’s learning standards, I started searching for a relevant standard to tie in to our lesson. Fortunately, kitchen safety fits right in to PA’s Early Learning Standards. By the end of preschool, children should be able to
Recognize safe and unsafe
practices.” Pennsylvania Learning Standards for Early Childhood (2014).
Safety must be taught
Since I teach this kind of information just in how I interact with my daycare kids, they already know what they can and can’t touch in my house.
However, this activity did help my three year old grasp a better understanding of the word “safe.” It also gives the other kids a better idea of why they can’t touch certain things in my house.
Not because I’m bossier than their parents, but because I have a multitude of kids to keep track of and can’t afford one of them to stick their fingers in the mixer certain things just aren’t safe for them whether mom has told them so or not.
Sometimes people forget that kids learn what we teach them and aren’t born with the knowledge of what’s safe and what’s not.
Reinforcing Kitchen Safety Concepts
Before we actually went to the kitchen, we discussed what kinds of things we usually find in there. Then we looked at a picture together and pointed out things that could hurt us.
Toxics and cleaning supplies are something else usually found in the kitchen – so don’t forget to mention them!
The most important thing we learned about was NEVER touch or taste anything in the kitchen without asking an adult first, because there are many dangerous things in the kitchen.
Later in the day we did our Safe and Not Safe activity. Since I have a small group, we did this activity together. Instead of a group activity, you could also create a copy for each student and ask them to complete the kitchen safety activity in their own house!
The first thing I did was cut out the labels and add a piece of rolled tape to the back. Then I asked about a specific object in the kitchen and let the children take turns labeling. Since the labels print 8 to a page, we ended up using 8 Safe and 8 Not Safe labels. We labeled things like:
- Fridge
- Stove
- Microwave
- Mixer
- Dishwasher
- Knife Drawer
- Cleaning Cupboard
- Pantry Door
- Fruit Bowl
- Can Opener
- Coffee Maker
- Kid’s Dishes Cupboard
This activity seems like a pretty effective lesson for being low prep! Most of all, I wanted to keep them willing to participate in our lesson. Kids always retain more when they’re motivated and learning is fun for them. I also wanted more practice for the rest of the week, so I made some worksheets and a sorting activity to go with the lesson.
Practicing Kitchen Safety
Part of our discussion focused on safe things for kids to do in the kitchen. One was making cookies!
First, we made cookies with Play-doh. Dough is always a great tool for preschool. It encourages creativity and fine motor skills. In addition, the cookie cutters gave us a great opportunity to practice naming colors and shapes. Plus, it definitely fits into the category of learning through play!
Next, we used our dramatic play center to cook up some meals. I love watching the kids use what they have learned when they are playing!
Finally, we made some cookies of our own. Since the snow has been coming down hard this week, we needed to warm up anyway! The kids love to help me measure and pour ingredients into the mixer. This was also a great opportunity to assess their knowledge by testing what objects were safe (ingredients, spatula, measuring cups) and unsafe (mixer, beater, oven, hot cookie sheets).
Don’t forget to get your printables!
This pack includes both printables and learning activities for teaching Kitchen Safety to young students. Identifying dangerous objects in the environment is a critical concept for preschool children. This pack features tools to practice recognizing safe and unsafe objects in the kitchen.
This PDF file includes 3 Worksheets and 2 Activities:
♥ 1 Instruction and Ideas for Use Page
♥ 1 Search and Find Worksheet
♥ 1 Draw and Write Worksheet
♥ 1 Is It Safe? Worksheet
♥ 2 pages of labels (1 “Safe”, 1 “Unsafe”)
♥ 1 page sorting activity
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