Touch, Feel, Learn ~ Solar Oven

It’s time to explore the world around us and have some fun learning how we can use the sun to cook some yummy treats in a homemade pizza box oven.

You’ll Need:

• recycled pizza box
• heavy duty aluminum foil
• plastic wrap
• black construction paper
• tape
• non-toxic glue
• marker
• ruler
• scissor 
• wooden dowel or stick

What You’ll Do:

1.   Using a ruler, draw a one inch border around the box. 

2.   Cut along three sides.  Make sure to leave the line along the back of the box uncut.

3.   Cut a piece of aluminum foil to fit in the bottom of the pizza box. 

4.   Then let your child add glue to the bottom of the box and attached the aluminum foil, making sure to smooth out all of the wrinkles.   

 

5.   Tape the black construction paper over the aluminum foil.

6.   Cut a piece of aluminum foil to cover the top flap of the box and glue it down (don’t forget to smooth all those wrinkles).

7.   Open the box lid and cover the opening with plastic wrap, taping it down.   This will help retain the heat.

8.   Prop open the box with a wooden dowel or stick.

9.   Your oven is ready!  Make sure and place it outside facing the sun so it can preheat before you use it.

As we were preparing our lunch ~ hotdogs and s’mores, we talked about how the aluminum foil heats up as we positioned the box toward the sunlight.  If we tilted the lid, directing the sunlight onto our food, we were using the sun to cook. 

Note:  I forgot to preheat our pizza box oven so it took our hotdogs over an hour to cook.

For dessert we made s’mores ~ which took about 20 minutes. 

The verdict – It was VERY YUMMY and fun!  

Don’t forget to make some sun tea to go with your lunch!

Touch, Feel, Learn is a fun feature that focuses on science and nature activities for little ones.  Click here to see past Touch, Feel, Learn ideas.