For 3-year-olds, it’s all about the sprinkles!
Ingredients:
Energetic 3-year-olds — five
Patient teachers — two
Prebaked sugar cookies, various holiday shapes, 2 dozen
Thick cookie frosting, 6 colors
Tiny, round multicolored sprinkles
Directions:
1. Seat pre-schooolers at low table, noting the eyes wide with holiday wonder. Add an individual plate (non-breakable) in front of each. Distribute a cookie to each, being careful to accommodate preferences when possible.
2. Have one teacher demonstrate how to use a plastic knife to apply one (ONE!) color of frosting to the cookie, spreading to the edges and being careful not to spread it elsewhere. Be ready to repeat and have second teacher step in to help as necessary.
3. Have one teacher demonstrate how to evenly distribute the sprinkles across the cookie, keeping them on the cookie and out of the mouth. Be ready to repeat this instruction as necessary.
4. Set on a baking rack to dry. Repeat until cookies are all decorated or until class time is completed.
It might not be to everyone’s taste, but cookie decorating with the Bucyrus Campus Zebra classroom got the holiday week off to a great start.
Working in the Respite Dining Area (with a sink and stepstool conveniently located just steps away), Katherine Keller and Diamond Beard kept colorful chaos to a minimum, thanks to keen observation skills and knowing their small charges’ personality. Keller works with the Zebras regularly while preparing a new nature-based curriculum; Beard is the Zebra class lead teacher.
The sugar cookies, cut out and baked the previous week, included shaped snowmen, Christmas trees, mittens, stars and more. The frosting bowls offered a tempting array of colors. The children focused closely as they dipped the knives into the icing and spread it on their cookies – until they saw…
“Ooh! Yummy sprinkles!”
One little guy was so excited about the sprinkles that he completely abandoned the idea of frosting the three cookies on his plate, despite reminders that it would act as glue and anchor the sprinkles to the cookies. He poured the sprinkles over them, watching unfazed as they bounced off the bare cookies. . Another child couldn’t resist tasting the sprinkles, several times: “It’s so GOOD!”
As they washed up afterward, a few worried about heading back to their classroom without their cookies. But Keller promised to bring the cookies down once the frosting dried. In the meantime, the Zebras would make do with visions of sugarplums – covered in sprinkles of course – dancing in their heads.
Want to make your own holiday magic? Here’s the recipe for the cookies and the frosting: https://joyfoodsunshine.com/best-cut-out-sugar-cookie-recipe/
