Kitchen Classroom 2021: Week 15

Welcome to week 15 of Kitchen Classroom 2021, where America’s Test Kitchen Kids is sharing a weekly kid-tested and kid-approved recipe, hands-on experiment, or activity paired with a “Learning Moment” that brings learning to life in the kitchen.

This week’s edition of Kitchen Classroom features Cooking For You! Kids will layer together lightly sweetened Greek yogurt, fresh berries, and crunchy granola to make colorful Yogurt and Berry Parfaits. Kids can make this easy recipe independently (no stovetop, knives, or adult help required!), and enjoy it for an impressive-looking snack or breakfast. Kids will practice multiplication and division to learn how to scale the recipe up or down to make enough parfaits for the whole family, or just one to enjoy for themselves. As they eat their parfaits, young chefs can take on a berry fact challenge and try out our Fruit or Vegetable? quiz in Take It Further.

Don’t forget to share what your family makes by tagging @testkitchenkids or using #ATKkids on Instagram, or by sending photos to kids@americastestkitchen.com. Visit the America’s Test Kitchen Kids website for more culinary content designed especially for kids, plus all of the Kitchen Classroom content in one easy-to-scan location. 

Here’s what’s cooking for the week of April 12th through 18th, 2021.

Yogurt parfaits combine a variety of textures and ingredients to make one deliciously simple breakfast or snack that kids can make without adult help. Kids can layer their berries, Greek yogurt, and granola in a tumbler or glass. Regular yogurt can be swapped for Greek yogurt, but the parfait layers won’t be as well-defined.
[GET THE RECIPE]

What You’ll Need
1 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon honey
1 cup raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and/or sliced strawberries
½ cup granola

Learning Moment
Math (Multiplication and Division; Measurement):
This recipe makes enough for two parfaits. Tell kids: If a recipe makes too much or not enough for the total number of people you are serving, you can scale the recipe down or up. If you scale a recipe down, that means you will decrease the amount of ingredients in the recipe to make less food. If you scale a recipe up, you will increase the amount of ingredients in the recipe to make more food. Challenge your young chef to scale this recipe up and down using multiplication and division in the word problems below. Remind kids that the rule for multiplying any number by 1 is that the number remains the same. Ask kids:

• If you want to make 1 parfait instead of 2, are you scaling up or down? How much yogurt, honey, berries, and granola would you need? 
  (Answer: Scaling down; all ingredients will be cut in half, or divided by 2. 1 ÷ 2 = ½, so 1 cup yogurt ÷ 2 = ½ cup yogurt, 1 tablespoon honey ÷ 2 = ½ tablespoon honey, and 1 cup berries ÷ 2 = ½ cup berries; ½ ÷ 2 = ¼, so ½ cup granola ÷ 2 = ¼ cup granola)
• If you want to make 4 parfaits instead of 2, are you scaling up or down? How much yogurt, honey, berries, and granola would you need?
  (Answer: Scaling up; all ingredients will be doubled, or multiplied by 2. 1 x 2 = 2, so 1 cup yogurt x 2 = 2 cups yogurt, 1 tablespoon honey x 2 = 2 tablespoons honey, 1 cup berries x 2 = 2 cups berries; ½ x 2 = 1, so ½ cup granola x 2 = 1 cup granola.) 

After scaling the recipe down and up, encourage kids to practice converting their measurements between teaspoons, tablespoons, and cups. Tell kids: 3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon, and 16 tablespoons = 1 cup. Ask kids:

• How many teaspoons are in 1 tablespoon of honey? If you make 1 parfait instead of 2, how many teaspoons of honey do you use?
  (Answer: 1 tablespoon honey = 3 teaspoons honey. 3 ÷ 2 = 1½ teaspoons honey)

• How many tablespoons are in 1 cup of yogurt? If you make 4 parfaits instead of 2, how many tablespoons of yogurt do you use?
  (Answer: 1 cup of yogurt = 16 tablespoons yogurt. 16 x 2 = 32 tablespoons yogurt)

• This recipe makes 2 parfaits. How many tablespoons of yogurt are in each parfait? 
  (Answer: 1 cup of yogurt = 16 tablespoons yogurt for 2 parfaits. 16 ÷ 2 = 8 tablespoons yogurt per parfait)

Take It Further
Life Science (Plants):
In Week 11 and Week 23 of Kitchen Classroom 2020, we talked about what makes a true berry. Remind kids that in our everyday conversations, “berries” are small fruits that grow on a bush. But, if you ask a plant scientist “What’s a berry?” they will give you a different answer: A berry is a fruit that grows from one flower, has a skin on the outside, and has sweet flesh that surrounds more than one seed on the inside. Keeping that definition in mind, challenge your young chef to correctly identify which of the following fruits are true berries, and which are not!

• Blueberry
• Raspberry
• Watermelon
• Blackberry
• Banana
• Strawberry
• Kiwi
• Gooseberry
  
  Answers:
• Blueberry: (Answer: A true berry!)
• Raspberry: (Answer: Not a berry! A single raspberry is actually made up of lots of tiny, round fruits, each with its own single seed inside)
• Watermelon: (Answer: A true berry!)
• Blackberry: (Answer: Not a berry! A single blackberry is actually made up of lots of tiny, round fruits, each with its own single seed inside)
• Banana: (Answer: A true berry!)
• Strawberry: (Answer: Not a berry! A strawberry contains many teeny individual fruits, each with their own yellow seed on the outside.)
• Kiwi: (Answer: A true berry! )
• Gooseberry: (Answer: A true berry!)

For more fruity fun (and some learning), your young chefs can head to the Fruit or Vegetable? quiz on our website and discover the scientific definitions of fruit and vegetables. Kids can take this quiz independently while they eat their parfaits, and learn some facts along the way.

Catching up on Kitchen Classroom? Find previous weeks using the links below:

• Kitchen Classroom 2021: Week 14
• Kitchen Classroom 2021: Week 13
• Kitchen Classroom 2021: Week 12
• Kitchen Classroom 2021: Week 11
• Kitchen Classroom 2021: Week 10