Introduce young children to the culture of Spain in a fun and engaging way through food!

This Early Years/KS1 resource is perfect for developing listening, communication, and fine motor skills while encouraging curiosity about the wider world.

Learning Objective:
To explore the culture of Spain through food by identifying ingredients and following simple instructions to help complete a recipe.

What’s Included:

• A gentle introduction to Spain: where it is on the map, the language spoken, the currency used, and what the country is known for — all explained in a way young children can understand.

• Visual and spoken step-by-step instructions demonstrated by the teacher, with key cooking actions for children to copy.

• A strong focus on hygiene and safety (e.g., washing hands before cooking).

• A written task where children complete a picture-based recipe sheet by guessing and filling in missing words with adult and visual support.

Contents:

• Link to access to Canva Presentation
• Lesson Plan

Focus Skills:

• Encourages exploration of different cultures
• Builds early literacy and language skills through discussion and vocabulary linked to food and cooking
• A wonderful introduction to food, culture, and language for curious little learners!

Notes:
This lesson plan does not include actually cooking the recipe. While that would be a valuable hands-on experience, potential egg allergies should be taken into consideration. Though it could work well in a home-education setting, carrying out the recipe in a nursery or school would require coordination with the school’s chef and permission to use kitchen equipment — something that may not always be feasible.

As an alternative, you could incorporate role-play elements into the lesson, allowing children to act out the cooking process in the role play area.

This lesson includes a written outcome, as it was a requirement for the lesson design. However, you could adapt it by using a hands-on sequencing activity, such as a puzzle or part of a sequencing board — a great alternative for younger children.

In terms of the word mats mentioned in the lesson plan, I used cooking utensils and cooking actions word mats from Twinkl. These are not shared in the download due to copyright restrictions.