7 Educational and Fun Pancake Day Activities for Schools
15 Jan, 20241-2 minutes
In this blog, you will learn:
- What Pancake Day is.
- 7 educational and fun Pancake Day activities for schools.
- Where the latest education and SEND jobs are and how to apply for them.
Everybody knows that Pancake Day is the perfect way to bring children together to eat yummy pancakes! However, Pancake Day is much more than just flipping pancakes and eating sweet treats - it has a long and rich history that you can also teach your pupils.
Pancake Day is a great opportunity for educators to engage students in fun and educational activities.
From teaching culinary skills to developing important mathematical skills, why not cook up something special this Pancake Day with these 7 flipping fantastic activities for schools?
What is Pancake Day?
Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday is the traditional Christian feast day before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Lent takes place in the 40 days leading up to Easter and is a time when Christians remember the 40 days and nights that Jesus spent alone in the desert.
Traditionally, during Lent, Christians fast, giving up rich foods like butter, eggs, sugar and fat, and what simple, delicious dish is made up of butter, eggs and sugar? Pancakes! That’s why on Shrove Tuesday, it is tradition to indulge and eat pancakes to use up key ingredients before fasting for lent for 6 weeks.
How do you celebrate Pancake Day in schools?
Pancake Day is celebrated in schools every year and is typically the time when Primary School Teachers educate pupils about Easter and the meaning of Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and Lent.
While schools can differ around the world, Pancake Day is generally celebrated worldwide with lots of different traditions, pancake-themed events and pancake making activities taking place.
Educational and fun Pancake Day activities
7 educational and fun Pancake Day activities include:
- Making pancakes
- Pancake decorating competition
- Create crafty pancake faces
- Teach some vital skills
- Organise a sponsored pancake flip
- Take part in a pancake race
- Host a fundraiser
Making pancakes
According to Business Waste, 52 million eggs are cracked to create pancakes in the UK on Shrove Tuesday, about 22 million more than on any other day!
Why not organise a pancake-making session at your school and give students the opportunity to flip pancakes? Not only is it fun for children to make their own pancakes, but it also provides them with an opportunity to improve their mathematical and culinary skills.
<H3>Pancake decorating competition<H3>
You don’t just have to make pancakes on the special day, you could encourage students to be creative in a pancake decorating competition.
Encourage independence and allow creativity to flourish by letting every student decorate pancakes with their own toppings including chocolate, syrup and fruit!
Or you go one step further and allow students to use their pancake as a canvas! Incorporate art supplies and have students recreate iconic artwork on their pancakes.
Create crafty pancake faces
Arts and craft activities are a great way to keep pupils engaged and entertained. Making pancake faces with felt, or pen and paper, will help you to avoid a lot of mess but still enable students to celebrate the occasion.
Paper or felt pancakes would also prevent your school from wasting pancakes and toppings which might not all be eaten.
Encourage students to create posters to decorate the classroom or if your school organises an event or fundraiser, allow students to design the artwork or marketing posters!
Other pancake-themed crafts include Pancake Day colouring books, design your own recipe and make your own Pancake hats for students to enjoy a pancake day party!
Teach some vital skills
As Pancake Day is built on rich history, religion and tradition, you could teach students the meaning and significance behind Shrove Tuesday and Christianity. Even schools not directly affiliated with the Christian faith could learn about Pancake Day to increase their cultural awareness. Learning about different cultures and traditions is a great way to build more tolerant and inclusive school communities.
While Pancake Day is the perfect excuse to make pancakes, you could also teach valuable culinary lessons such as how to follow recipes and instructions - and the art of the perfect flip!
Teaching children valuable domestic skills in the kitchen can also be extremely beneficial for the future. Explain to students the importance of cleaning, cooking, safety and sanitation in the kitchen, as well as healthy eating.
In preparation for the actual pancake making activity, students will be able to put their skills to the test through weighing and measuring ingredients and calculating the number of pancakes needed.
Organise a sponsored pancake flip
It might be obvious to make pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, but why not add a (lemon) twist? Organising a pancake flipping competition will give students the chance to have fun, build their confidence and improve their skills!
Challenge your pupils to flip a pancake as many times as possible in one minute. According to the Guinness World Records, the most flips of a pancake in one minute is 140 times. See if your pupils can rise to the challenge! Set some rules and create certificates for each child that takes part and give out prizes for the winners.
You could make the day even better by hosting the flip for charity! Choose a charity and ask parents, family, friends and the community to sponsor pupils. Not only is it great fun for pupils, but it also raises money for charity!
Take part in a pancake race
Turn up the heat, why not organise a pancake race (running while flipping a pancake in a pan) on the school playground or in the school hall? Pancake races have been a part of Pancake Day celebrations for hundreds of years, since 1445 no less! To this day, people still compete in pancake races, even some in fancy dress!
Determine the rules of the race e.g. pupils must flip the pancake three times during the run without dropping it or make it a relay race where pupils carry pancakes in a pan and pass them to teammates without dropping them.
For younger pupils, consider having them balance pancakes on their heads or on one finger as they run to see who can make it to the finish line without dropping the precious pancake.
You could even raise the stakes and sponsor the race to raise money for charity for those in need.
Host a fundraiser
Why not turn Pancake Day into a fundraiser by selling pancakes to students, staff, and parents? Proceeds could go towards a school project, school essentials or a chosen charity.
During the fundraiser, your school could combine other activities such as a sponsored pancake race or a pancake flipping competition.
You could even make it an annual school tradition, one that pupils, Teachers and parents can look forward to every year!
Recruit teaching, support and facilities staff
As a specialist education recruitment agency, we support mainstream and SEND schools with their staffing needs, whether that be for temp, perm or temp-perm staff.
We can help to recruit a full range of staff including Teachers, Teaching Assistants, School Cleaners, SIMS Administrators and more!
To discover more, simply get in touch with Managing Consultant of our education division, Jamie Heath, to discover how we can assist you.
Teaching, school support staff and school facilities jobs
If you’re looking for a new career opportunity in education, simply browse our teaching jobs page or upload your CV to be contacted about upcoming job opportunities.
Meet Jamie Heath
Who is Spencer Clarke Group?
As a passionate and professional recruitment agency, we believe in delivering an excellent recruitment experience. Recruitment to us is about effecting positive change, not just perfectly matching candidates and clients.
We are enthusiastic about matching candidates with a job that has the ability to increase their salary, better their standard of living, work life balance and improve their mental health.
As we evolve, we continue to share our knowledge and professionalism in a bid to help individuals seeking a new career opportunity as well as organisations looking to expand and grow.
We operate in two sectors:
In eleven specialisms:
Healthcare, Social Care & Nursing
Corporate Functions & Business Support
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