Smoky mackerel spread

Age group:: 4-5 years
Food group:: Meat, fish, eggs, beans

This quick and simple recipe will help 4-5-year-olds hone their mashing skills by getting them to mix up the ingredients into a tasty spread. They will get hands-on breaking up the mackerel, but will need supervision to make sure all of the small bones are removed.

This toolkit contains a recipe, along with ideas about how you could include it in your lesson. Take a look at the recipe below and refer to it alongside the teaching resources.

The cooking skills and recipes have been developed in collaboration with the British Nutritional Foundation.

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Available Teaching materials

Mathematics

Sing the counting rhymes, for example:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Once I caught a fish alive.
6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Then I let it go again.
Why did you let it go?
Because it bit my finger so.
Which finger did it bite?
This little finger on my right!

Counting and number recognition

Make a very simple track with no numbers.
- Draw a fish shape in some of the spaces.
- The children throw a dice to move along the track. If they land on a space with a fish, they have a turn at fishing a number card out of a bag.
- Whatever the number on the card, the player picks up that many rainbow-fish scales (made from shiny card).
- When the children reach the end of the track, they count their shiny scales.
- The player with the most is the winner.
- Give the children some fish shapes and some shiny scales. Let them share the scales between the fish however they like. Talk with the children about how they are sharing, encouraging mathematical language. Ask questions such as these. In how many different ways can four shiny scales be shared between two fish?
- Draw some fish on a sheet with a number next to each. The children stick or draw the correct number of shiny scales on the fish.
- If you have magnetic fishing rods, use them to fish for numbers. They may be used for a number of skill reinforcement activities:
number recognition
simple addition: two children fish a number out each and add them together
identifying odd and even numbers
talking about numbers: bigger than, smaller than etc.Give the children a sheet of paper with several rows of small fish on it.
Demonstrate how to make a repeating pattern with two colours.Ask the children to create their own repeating patterns.Practise making repeating patterns using other tactile equipment such as threading strings and peg board.

Equipment

Juicer
Bowl
Kitchen scissors
Measuring spoons
Fork
Spoon

Steps

Step 1

Juice the lime or lemon.
Step 2

Break the mackerel into small pieces and place it in the bowl, removing any bones. ADULT SUPPORT.
Step 3

Snip the chives. ADULT SUPPORT.
Step 4

Add the sour cream and juice.
Step 5

Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly.
Step 6

Serve.