Emma Hrabak just can't help herself. It's pink cream cheese, after all, and it's so hard to resist a little taste. So Emma, 3, dives in for a finger full, then another, as her teacher hands out the ingredients that will be assembled into an edible Clifford the Big Red Dog.

That's the nature of the tiny chefs in the Tot Cooking-Food Fun class, held weekly for preschoolers 3 and older at the Cooper City Pool and Tennis Center. Grace Wexler of Miramar has taught the classes for 10 years.

The weekly cooking classes blend language, math and prewriting skills to help students get more out of the class than a snack during story time.

``I try to work in a learning portion, where they're learning about shapes or colors,'' Wexler said. ``We also work on small motor coordination, such as pulling, shaping and mixing, which is important for prewriting skills.''

With 20 years of early-childhood teaching experience at Lehrman Community Day School in Miami Beach, Wexler is unflappable when faced with the occasional unruly tot. She calmly steers the small cooks with the smallest attention spans through a series of activities during the 1 ½-hour lesson, with no parents allowed.

``I always start with circle time, where I introduce the lesson, and start with poetry and songs,'' Wexler said. An art project, cooking project and story time follow a theme each session, she said.

Clifford the Big Red Dog was a recent theme, and Wexler handed out supplies to the smocked youngsters to make Clifford puppets. The kids drew, painted, glued and assembled their puppets before washing up for the main event.

Edible Cliffords were next on the day's menu.

``What shape will we make his face?'' Wexler asked.

``Rectangle?'' Jay Nemec, 3, asked.

``No, not a rectangle,'' Wexler said.

``It's a circle!'' Sophia Dourvetakis, 3, shouted, when she saw the plastic cutter.

Wexler said the cooking activity is intertwined with language lessons, as they talk about how things smell and taste, what letters they start with and how things go together.

Wexler handed out slices of white bread, and helped the children cut a circle shape out of each slice. Each child had a turn mixing whipped cream cheese with red food coloring. They spread the topping on the bread and chocolate chip eyes, a fruit roll-up tongue and pear ears completed the treat.

In past lessons, the children made chocolate-chip pancakes and assembled apple burritos.

Wexler said she enjoyed Cooper City's tot program with her own son, who is now in college. She wrote the curriculum for the current tot program, which features Literature on Monday, Alphabet Soup on Tuesday, Food Fun on Wednesday and Science on Thursday.

``I'm always, always, always brainstorming for ideas,'' Wexler said. ``I even keep a notepad by my bed.''

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