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Cook and make things with your child to aid physical development and build confidence

When you see an activity labelled with 'Craft and Cooking' on CBeebies, it means that it can help your child to develop their creativity and confidence through cooking or making things. This learning area is all about children exploring different ingredients and materials and understanding that they can be turned into something new, making their own creative decisions and expressing themselves.

How cooking helps children to learn

For adults, cooking usually entails following a set process in a particular order, but cooking with children is more about exploration and using all your senses.

Provide your child with a whole range interesting ingredients and give them the freedom to be creative, and you’ll often find that they’ll be prepared to taste and try far more than you imagined. I Can Cook’s fun recipes can provide a handy starting point, but feel free to improvise and follow your little one’s interests.

Research has shown that exposure to lots of different foods early on helps to widen children’s tastes and preferences later in life, so it’s well worth giving them lots of opportunities to experiment when they’re little.

Find out more about how you can use cooking to empower and encourage adventurous eating on CBeebies Grown-ups.Ìý

How craft activities help children to learn

Getting crafty and making things enables children to develop hand-eye coordination, and master fine motor skills (small muscle movements like gripping) that are crucial for activities like holding a pen later on when little ones are learning to write.

Making a model of something they’ve seen, or creating something entirely new from their imagination also helps children to express themselves – perhaps better than they’re able to do with words as yet.

Don’t forget to praise their creative efforts – it’ll build their self-esteem and give them confidence.

ÌýThere are lots of craft ideas and makes on the CBeebies website to get you started.Ìý

ÌýAbout CBeebies learning areas

At CBeebies, our learning areas reflect those found in the Early Years curricula of the UK; the EYFS in England and Wales, the Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland, and the Foundation Stage in Northern Ireland.

These are the guidelines that all educational settings (like nurseries, schools and child-minders) follow to help children develop knowledge, skills and understanding using a fun, play-based approach.

ÌýWe reflect these learning areas so you can be sure that what your child learns from CBeebies perfectly complements what they are taught when they get to nursery and school.

CBeebies’ learning area ‘Craft and Cooking’ links to Expressive Arts and Design (England and Wales), Expressive Arts (Scotland) and The Arts (Northern Ireland).