Assistant Chef
Kids Cooking Lessons Plans
3-6 years old
Lesson 4


For today’s Kids Cooking Lessons plans, please review Dinner Etiquette and Manners below. This is a lesson you can practice every night while sitting down as a family for dinner.


Dinner Etiquette and Manners

setting tableAfter reading and talking about etiquette and manners, allow your assistant chef to practice setting the table.


Talk about proper etiquette and manners while eating dinner. This is a lesson we often overlook in our children but it is important to learn nonetheless.


Make the discussion fun and enjoyable by getting them involved in acting with manners and acting without manners, or reward the best mannered person at the table.



Review Rules of Etiquette
and Dinner Manners

  • Wait for everyone to be seated before eating


  • Ask to pass food instead of grabbing or reaching across the table


  • Do not chew with mouth full


  • "May I please be excused", "please" and "thank you"


  • Carry own plate, utensils and cup after finished eating to sink


  • Learn proper dinner placement for setting table


  • Eat together, turn off television and talk about your day!


  • Eat with utensils not your hands (unless it is finger foods)


Setting the Table

Your Typical Dinner Setting

dinner setting
  • Fork to the left. The extra fork on the far left in this picture is the salad fork.
  • Plate center 1 inch from edge of table

  • Knife and spoon to the right

  • Knife should be closest to the plate with the blade facing toward plate

  • Napkin under fork or on top of plate


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Formal Dinner Setting

Not many people need to know how to line out a proper dinner setting, like the one on the left, but for our kids cooking lessons you can look it over for fun.

 formal dinner setting
  • The plate should be placed 1 inch from the table edge.


  • A dinner fork is placed to the left of the plate.


  • If you had a salad fork, it would be to the left of the dinner fork because it is used first.


  • The knife is always on the right hand side of the plate with the blade facing the plate.


  • Spoon is to the right of the knife.


  • The little spoon beside it is for coffee –the spoon can also be placed on the coffee cup saucer.


  • The little plates above the dinner plate are for bread.

Related Assistant Chef Cooking Lessons:
~Lesson 1--Kitchen Safety, ~Lesson 2--Spreading, ~Lesson 3--Pouring, ~Lesson 4--Dinner Etiquette and Manners, ~Lesson 5--Peeling, ~Lesson 6--Practice rolling, ~Lesson 7--Tearing and Tossing, ~Lesson 8--Nutrition and Eating Healthy, ~Lesson 9--Practice Stirring and Making a No Bake Recipe, ~Lesson 10--Adding Ingredients, ~Lesson 11--Creating and Being Creative, ~Lesson 12--Practice Measuring,, ~Lesson 13--Helping in the Kitchen



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