Filming a Cooking Session

A cooking activity can provide an excellent opportunity for creating a film to record the process, and disseminate it to others. It provides excellent IT skills for pupils, and parents can then learn how to cook the recipe at home. In this example, a pupil is busy recording his classmates producing a tasty butternut squash snack.

Washingborough Academy run a ‘snack shack’ where each week, a different group of children cook a healthy snack that pupils purchase at break time. This raises useful funds for the school that can be spent on food education activities, growing projects or farm visits. The recipes are shared with parents on the Washingborough Academy YouTube website and ‘food channel’, and films of the recipe being made can help those who wish to make it at home.

What are the benefits/outcomes of a digital approach to this activity?

• Allowing children to film their own cooking activity gives them ownership of every part of it. 
• The children are enthused, and the filming process utilises the skills of every child, 
• It builds on wider areas of the curriculum, including computing, literacy, oracy, social skills, maths and nutrition. 
• The children can share the videos with their peers, their parents and families, and the wider community. This broadens the audience the work can reach.
• Easy to set up with any pre-arranged cooking and food activities

Top Tips

• Familiarise both staff and children with the recipe and steps that need filming
• Discuss possible questions that could be asked
• Ensure children are familiar with the filming and video software
• Designate roles to children prior to the session