Food Preparation Fun Food Activity for Children
Measuring and Pouring
Purpose
• To help children learn to measure dry ingredients
• To help children learn to pour liquids
• To help children mix a solid and a liquid
• To help children participate in preparing a snack
• To help children learn to pour a 1/2 cup portion of milk
• To reinforce ideas of being clean and careful when preparing food
Activity Note: Younger children may need more adult help with the activity. The
activity can be split over two days (measure activity one day and pour activity
another day). Adapt the activity to meet the needs of the children. Measuring
and pouring are fun for preschoolers, but can be messy activities. Be prepared for
some spills.
Snack Note: This activity can qualify
for a Child and Adult Care Food
Program (CACFP) reimbursable
snack. Check the amount of pancake
mix that will produce 1/2 ounce of
bread/cereal serving. Adjust the
amount of mix per child to provide
a reimbursable serving. Adjust
the amount of water as needed
to make pancake batter.
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Food Preparation Fun Food Activity for Children
Measuring and Pouring
The activity as written uses a fat free pancake mix to make one 1/2-ounce bread
equivalent serving from 1/4 cup dry mix with 2 tablespoons water.
Refer to CACFP serving guidelines for children of different ages and adjust
amounts as needed. This activity is written using the snack pattern for children
ages 3–5 years old.
Supplies Needed
Food
• Pancake mix, type that requires only adding water, 1/4 cup per child plus at least
one cup extra
• Water, 2 tablespoons per 3-ounce cup (listed below)
• Milk, at least 1/2 cup per child plus at least 1 cup extra; in a child size pitcher or
small carton
• Blueberry or strawberry pancake syrup, if desired
• Non-stick cooking spray
Equipment
• 1/4 cup dry measuring cup
Tip: Choose a size that has an opening smaller than the 5-ounce paper cups
• Wooden sticks (frozen dessert type), clean and suitable for use with food
• Two large baking sheets with an edge (jellyroll pan or other shallow pan) or tray
• 8-ounce paper cups for dry pancake mix, one per child
• 3-ounce paper cups for water, one per child
• Large electric griddle or skillet (preferably non-stick) or access to a stovetop
burner and griddle or skillet (preferably non-stick)
• Pancake turner
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Food Preparation Fun Food Activity for Children
Measuring and Pouring
Serving Utensils and Items
• 8 oz cups, for 1/2 cup portion of milk, one per child
• Small pitcher (child size) for pouring milk
• Plates, one per child
• Forks, one per child
What to Do Ahead of Time
Set up the activity at a child size counter/table or use a secure footstool for children
to stand on to reach an adult size counter easily.
Arrange for enough adult help/supervision of children, depending on size of the
group.
Set up the measuring materials
• Place the pancake mix in the large bowl.
• Place the large bowl at the end of one baking sheet or tray.
• Place a 1/4 cup dry measuring cup near the bowl on the baking sheet or tray.
• Write each child’s name on both sides of one end of a wooden stick to show
which end to hold. The unmarked end of the wooden stick will touch food.
• Place one stick in each 8-ounce cup, one per child.
Set up the pouring materials
• Measure the amount of water needed for each child’s
pancake mix into a 3-ounce cup (about 2 tablespoons
based on mix used to develop activity), one per child
• Place all cups of water on the second baking sheet or
tray.
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Food Preparation Fun Food Activity for Children
Measuring and Pouring
Set up cooking area
• Set up electric skillet or griddle in a place where children cannot touch the hot
surface.
• Have non-stick spray and pancake turner in a place very close to the griddle/
skillet.
• Place plates for prepared pancakes near the cooking area.
Set up snack service area
• Set up cups for milk, forks, syrup, and other snack supplies at table where snack
will be eaten.
• At snack service time, place the pitcher or small carton of milk on a baking
sheet or tray and have cups close to the baking sheet or tray near the place
where snack will be eaten.
• If necessary, have a sturdy step stool available for children to use when pouring
milk. Note: Keep the milk in the refrigerator until snack service time.
Activity
Tell the children that today they will learn to measure and pour. When they are
finished, they will eat a snack that they have helped prepare.
Remind the children that we are clean and careful when we work with food.
Have children wash their hands before the activity.
Tip: Sing the verse about washing hands before helping with the meal from CARE
children’s activity on hand washing (Every Day We Wash Our Hands).
Remind the children that each has washed his or her hands and to please keep their
hands clean (do not touch nose, mouth, face, neighbor, and other objects).
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Food Preparation Fun Food Activity for Children
Measuring and Pouring
Measure a dry ingredient
Show the children the bowl of pancake mix, the measuring cup,
paper cups, and wooden sticks. Explain that you will first show
everyone how to measure the pancake mix and put it into the
cup.
Follow these steps for measuring the pancake mix:
a. Scoop the pancake mix with the 1/4 cup dry measuring cup so the cup is
heaping full.
b. Level the amount of mix in the cup with the wooden stick. Show how to
pick up the stick by the end where the name is written. Show how to use
the edge of the stick to move across the edge of the measuring cup. Level
the cup low in the bowl to keep the extra mix in the bowl.
c. Put the stick down and pick up the empty paper cup.
d. Tip the measuring cup into the paper cup to move the mix into the cup.
Do this over the bowl to catch any mix that spills.
e. Pick up the stick (grasp the end with writing) and place the stick into the
cup of mix. The name on the stick identifies each child’s cup. Set aside.
Help each child, one at a time, measure the pancake mix. Talk with the children as
the steps are repeated. See the Helpful Tips for Measuring Pancake Mix section.
Ask the children questions, such as “What step comes next?”
When everyone has measured the mix, remove the bowl from the baking sheet or
tray.
Pour a liquid
Show the children your paper cup with pancake mix and wooden stick and one
3-ounce cup of water. Explain that you will first show everyone how to pour water
into the pancake mix and then stir the dry mix and water.
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Food Preparation Fun Food Activity for Children
Measuring and Pouring
Ask the children to raise the hand with which they like to hold a crayon. Tell the
children to use this hand to hold the cup of water. This is also the hand to use to
hold the wooden stick when they stir the mix.
Follow these steps to pour water into the pancake mix:
a. Place the paper cup of mix on the flat table surface. Hold the cup firmly
to the table with the non-crayon hand.
b. Pick up the small cup with water.
c. Touch the edge of the small cup to the large cup. Slowly tip the cup
of water to pour into the cup with the mix. Tip until all of the water is
poured into the larger cup. Put the small cup down.
Mix a liquid with a solid
After the water is added, stir the water and pancake mix:
a. Use the wooden stick to stir the water into the mix. Continue to hold the
cup firmly to the table surface while stirring.
b. Leave the stick upright in the mixed pancake batter. The name on the
stick identifies each child’s cup. Set the cups on a tray and take to the
cooking area.
Cook the pancake batter
Take the tray of cups with mixed batter to the cooking area. Gather the children to
watch at a safe distance from the hot cooking surface.
Show how you pour the batter on the hot griddle or pan.
Note: If pancakes are cooked several at a time, the wooden sticks with the
children’s names can be placed in the pancakes, lollipop style to identify each
child’s pancake. Take care with flipping the pancake to hold the stick during the
turn. If needed, put the stick down on the griddle and turn the pancake on top of
the wooden stick.
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Food Preparation Fun Food Activity for Children
Measuring and Pouring
Place each child’s pancake on a plate. Bring the pancakes to the table. Help each
child pour a 1/2 cup portion of milk with the child-size pitcher. Use the same
method used for adding water to the cup of powder.
Pour the milk
a. Pick up the pitcher of milk with the hand with which the child prefers to
hold a crayon.
b. Hold the cup securely to the table with the other hand. Some children
may need to use two hands on the pitcher. In this case, an adult holds
the cup firmly to the table or helps the child hold the pitcher, which ever
method works best.
c. Slowly tip the spout of the pitcher until is touches the edge of the cup.
d. Pour milk into the 8 oz cup until it is 1/2 full, which will be 1/2 cup.
Note: Add milk to the small pitcher as needed. There should be more than 1/2 cup
of milk in the pitcher, but it needs to be light enough for a child to pick up and pour
from it. Provide help as needed.
Serve pancakes with a small amount of syrup and a 1/2 cup portion of milk.
Helpful Tips
Below are more ideas to help make the activity smooth and easy. Compliment the
children as they complete the steps. If a spill happens, talk about how spills are
cleaned up. Remind the children we have to try many times before it is easy for us.
Trying many times is how we learn.
• Pick up the measuring cup by the handle and point out to the children that we
touch the handle of the cup. We do not put our hands inside the cup to pick it
up.
• Show the children how to scoop the measuring cup into the pancake mix so that
the cup is heaped.
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Food Preparation Fun Food Activity for Children
Measuring and Pouring
• Show how to pick up the wooden stick where the name is written.
Explain how
we handle only one end of the stick to keep any germs on our hands out of the
food.
• Show the children how to use the wooden stick to level or make the surface of
the pancake mix even with the top of the measuring cup. Point out each child
will most likely want to push the stick with the same hand in which they like to
hold a crayon.
• Tell the children they need to hold onto the handle of the measuring cup firmly
with one hand while using the wooden stick to push across the top of the cup.
They will use the stick to push the extra back into the bowl.
• Show the children how to hold the cup low in the bowl so that the extra falls
into the bowl and not on the baking sheet or tray.
• Show the children how to place the measuring cup down flat on the baking sheet
or tray.
• Point out that it may be easier to put the dry mix into the cup by changing the
hand that holds the cup. Put the cup down so that the hand that held the stick
can now hold the handle of the measuring cup.
• Show how to bring the edge of the paper to the measuring cup and gently turn
the handle of the measuring cup to place the mix in the paper cup. This action
can be done over the bowl so that any powder that spills will spill into the bowl.
• Show how holding the cup of powder firmly on the table helps make it easier to
pour the liquid.
• Show how to touch the edge of the water cup to the edge of the cup with mix.
This helps make it easier to pour into the cup without spilling.
• Show how to tip slowly, in a controlled manner, to pour the water into the cup.
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