our not-so-teeny-zucchini

Last week, a good friend of mine gave us the most ginormous zucchini I had ever seen. I’m not sure what she’s feeding her plants, but I knew right away what I wanted to do with it. I had been craving my mom’s zucchini bread all summer long.

So, without haste, I made the recipe kid-friendly and had Maddy, Owen, and Cora throw on their aprons and get to work!

• Reading to Perform a Task–Baking with Zucchini: Just like I’ve done before, I made this recipe into one that would be more easily read by my tiny bakers and emerging readers. I enlarged the font, added a check-off line, and–where I could–I added a small picture to aid in comprehension. I also wrote the directions in easy-to-understand steps; here is the revised recipe.

I put the recipe in a plastic sleeve, and I grabbed a dry-erase marker. Then we gathered ingredients and got to work.

Maddy and Owen helped grate the zucchini, and everyone cracked an egg into the bowl. Each kiddo took turns dumping ingredients into bowls and measuring.

Our kitchen was a serious mess by the end, but it was worth the work. With a little bake-time tweaking–we only had one loaf pan, so we filled two 6-muffin tins and kept the bread in longer–everything came out delicious!

Caught her! Cora’s tiny finger caught on camera–
trying to sneak a taste of sugar.

While we’re baking, I usually try to put tiny samples of each ingredient (the safe ones!) on a plate so that they can try each “piece” of our recipe. My thinking is that by doing this, they will all become accustomed to how familiar–and unfamiliar–foods taste.

Any time I can sneak in early literacy skills, I’m especially happy–whether it be on the road, in the kitchen, at the store, or wherever. Showing little ones how we, as adults, use reading for different purposes–to gain information, to perform a task, or for enjoyment–demonstrates for them the importance of acquiring these skills themselves!