Last week, our group had our first Food and Textiles input and it was quite an eye opener. I would be the first to admit, my culinary skills are not the best, with microwaving and making some small cakes about as far as it goes. Today has given me more confidence in myself about teaching this subject and this workshop and previous research has now given me simple recipes and lessons I can do with children in order to develop their skills.

It was interesting to learn how simply learning to make different foods can link so much into different areas of the curriculum. We experienced many examples of this during the input, such as:

• How making the cakes that my partner and I made – chocolate melting can link to the science of changing form.

• How traditional foods made in the class can be linked to traditional dance in another lesson.
• How children can represent the food they make through dance and drama, e.g. popcorn.
• Simply the health and nutrition aspect of food linking to the health and wellbeing aspects of dance, drama and PE.
• Food linking to religious festivals such as Shrove Tuesday and pancakes.

It was an interesting input and one that will hopefully help me become successful at teaching the same to children. It is vital to the curriculum as it can encourage children to become healthy adults and can develop their understanding of how significant eating correctly is to their lives. The subject is so important as it links to several other areas of the curriculum such as expressive arts, mathematics, social studies and sciences.