Making ice cream

Everybody washes hands first!

Students look at pictures of ice cream and we talk about our favorite kinds. I may show pictures I've taken of popular ice cream stores. Then I ask he students to give me ideas about how to make ice cream. I show students the recipe and we read it together. Then I begin to get out the ingredients (I keep these hidden until now). As I pull out ingredients, discuss what the name is, let students smell or taste as appropriate (very sensory). I have a picture previously taken of each ingredient to match with the real thing. Then I get out the cooking tools. We look at each tool and guess/talk about what its used for (bowl, measuring cup/spoon). We look at the pictures of the tools and match them up as well. Lots of math practice with fractions and cooking measurements. Lots of vocabulary too - pint, gallon, Ziploc, baggie, tablespoon, half and half....

Finally its time to cook! As the students help make their own ice cream, I take pictures of each step (and each student doing the step, if possible). We continue on and finish our ice cream and enjoy - one last picture of each students enjoying their snack. We review our pictures of our ingredients and tools as we review the lesson.

That afternoon, I transfer the pictures onto a page to make a picture recipe for each student. It shows all the ingredients, the cooking tools and each student doing each step. These picture recipes are reviewed at the end of the day. I encourage the parents to talk about the recipes with their child and then make it, if possible.

At the end of the year, we compile all of our recipes into a cookbook to take home. I keep a copy at school - the kids love to see pictures of themselves.

The recipe is below:
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IceCream in a Bag

1 Tablespoon sugar 1 pint size Ziploc bag
1/2 cup half and half 1 gallon size Ziploc bag
1/4 teaspoon vanilla ice cubes to fill 1/2 ziploc
6 Tablespoons rock salt

Fill the large Ziploc bag half full of ice and add salt. Seal the bag.

Put milk, vanilla, and sugar in the small bag and mix. Seal the small bag.

Put the small bag into the large bag and seal. Shake the large bag for 5 minutes using mittens or gloves to protect your hands. This is a bit drippy, so have some towels handy!

Open the bags and enjoy!
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