The Benefits of Baking!
11/16/2019
Often, children learn by observing, exploring, reading and listening. This is why baking bread is a perfect opportunity for learning. This week, we explored the process of baking bread! We began by talking about the steps for making flour. We read the classic story, “The Little Red Hen”. The story is centered around a red hen who finds some seeds on the ground and decides to plant them to ultimately make bread. She plants a grain of wheat, harvests the wheat crop, picks the wheat, grinds it, and then bakes a loaf of bread. The little red hen works hard while the other farm animals just lay around and sleep. Not only does the story help teach children the value of hard work, but it encourages them to work together to reach a goal. Afterward, the students worked together to make delicious pretzels! Besides being a delicious snack, making pretzels with children provides many developmental opportunities. Baking bread is a great fine motor activity as children work the dough and twist it into a shape. Rolling out dough, flattening it, and pouring ingredients are all ways for kids to practice their hand-eye coordination. Before we started making the pretzels, I listed the recipe on the board with illustrations for students to follow. The students attempted to follow the illustrations as well as verbal instructions. Following a recipe can boost a child's listening and sequences skills. It also encourages children to follow instructions which is an important school skill. Spatial perception and planning skills were strengthened when the children had to divide the dough in equal portions to make pretzels. They worked with real life math concepts such as measuring and using a variety of measuring tools. In addition, baking offers a great opportunity to help with language, math and science skills. As the children took turns measuring, pouring and mixing ingredients, they were exposed to new vocabulary. Some vocabulary discussed during this activity included harvest, rise, wheat, and knead. Baking also involves counting, number recognition and measuring which are just a few of the many mathematical skills we work to develop in EK. Lastly, the children watched the flour change color, texture, and odor throughout the process. We talked about the role yeast plays in the bread making process. Yeast begins feeding on the sugars in flour, and releases the carbon dioxide which makes bread rise. The children were amazed to see the dough rise after waking up from their naps! Lastly, we coated the pretzels with butter and salt. The children absolutely loved them! As an extension to this activity we made the perfect play doh using similar ingredients!
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April 2021
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