Happy first week of school!  This week, we spent time getting used to the schedule and routines of Pre-K.  We also met new friends and teachers, and explored the new indoor and outdoor classroom environments.  There is so much to see and do around here! 

Throughout the week, we observed the students in action.   We talked with children about their play, interests, and about potential project ideas.  We have learned so much already from our students in just a few days. An exciting development we have seen is an overwhelming interest in our dramatic play area.  It is so much more than a kitchen!  Students have been busy running a restaurant, cooking and baking, crafting original recipes and entertaining guests at home.  We have also seen this interest expressed in outdoor play as well, with tall layer cakes constructed out of wood and pebbles, pies and entrees made of sand and water, and more.  If you come into the classroom during project time, or join us outside, you are sure to be asked if you like a meal.  

Student Cooking & Baking Quotes:

• "I make spaghetti. I put cheese and red sauce in it." - Henry
• "My bread has chocolate in it." - Leo
• "I take orders in the restaurant." - Lily
• "I make a egg sandwich.  It has egg, bread, sausage." - Bennett
• "I make blueberries with coffee and cookie hamburgers" - Sawyer
• "To make a cake, I put in the batter, mush it up, put in the butter, maybe some ketchup or butter crackers. I put the number on (on the oven) and cook it for one hour. It cooks between two boards." - Dylan
• "I put it in the oven and cook it. I put some sprinkles on it, then done!  The dough has sprinkles, maybe you roll it." - Carly
• "I put cheese in a cupcake to make a cheese cupcake." -Owen
• "I make spaghetti with eggs." - Abigail
• "I make spaghetti with egg, tomato, bread, and salad." - Willa
• "I make dumplings." - Cash
• "We cook baked tomatoes and lettuce." - Elli R.

We are excited to see how this idea and interest develops in the week to come.  Stay tuned for more on this (and other) potential projects.   

This week we continued our interest in cakes and baking. To learn more, we did research on different kinds of cakes by browsing Fine Cooking magazines and cook books and marked every cake and pie we found.  There are many different varieties!  Some have frosting, fruit, layers, or are covered with cream. Later in the week we shared the results of our cake research. We chose seven different cakes from all the cakes we found in the magazines and cookbooks.  We selected a variety: some with many layers, some with fruit, a few with chocolate, some with frosting and some without, and one with sprinkles. We made copies and hung them on the wall.  Then, each child wrote his or her name on a sticky note and placed their vote above the picture of the cake they liked best. The cake with the most votes is the kind we will bake in our class next week. On Friday, our voting system of sticky notes and pictures became a real graph with labels. This way, visitors will know what our graph is for. As of press time today, the results are still undetermined.  We have one clear frontrunner, a simple chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles, and a four-way tie for second place!  Erin and Caitie will be doing some baking this weekend too, making the second and third choice cakes for the ultimate sampling event. We are going to discuss how we can break the tie and determine the top three cakes. Stay tuned for more on this cake excitement next week and our plan for the next couple weeks.

Another highlight was playing with flour in the sensory table and trying out real measuring cups and other cooking tools.  It was a very fun and very messy time.  Many students created original cakes while working in the sensory table. Here are some of the original recipes and other thoughts on cakes:

• “My cake has chocolate frosting, some vanilla frosting. Candles on top. Lots of batter in it and then it’s done. That's how I made it.  One time I had a train cake for my birthday. It had twizzlers for the pullers. The tracks were something you could eat.”” – Murphy
• “I made a blueberry strawberry orange vanilla cake. I have full oranges in my cake.” – Brooks L.
• “I made a cake. It has cupcake, waffle, cheese, macaroni, pizza, and strawberry on top. I think it tastes like birthday cake.” – Henry
• “I like to cook strawberry muffins.” –Rowan

Another question we discussed this week is: When do people bake and eat cakes besides for someone’s birthday?  Here are some of the responses: 

• “Mother’s Day!  And one time with Grandma I made a chocolate cream pie and it was a surprise for Dad.” – Marleigh
• “Happy Kids Day at the science museum.” – Sawyer
• “When I’m feeling lonely.  If you get hurt.” – Owen
• “I’m not lonely when I eat cake.” – Murphy
• “It is it special time and you are all together. You can make cake if you want to make a cake.” - Dylan

Cake Boss

This week we watched a few short clips from the television show, Cake Boss.  We are curious how professional bakers make cakes.  We watched as they made a cake shaped like a boat, with details like tackle boxes and fish in the ocean that were edible. We also watched in awe as they built a fire engine cake with lights and sirens that flashed and a building that smoked as if it was on fire!  Wow.  Please stop by the bulletin board in the mudroom to see pictures of the fire engine cake and the boat cake.  These clips from Cake Boss helped us think about a few questions we will be discussing in the next week: What do we know about cakes? What do we want to know, want to learn, or wonder about cakes?  We look forward to sharing these ideas with you next week.

Here are some of our observations from watching the clips of Cake Boss:

• "He uses black frosting in the tube" - Laila
• "One guy sits in the back of the truck to make sure the cake doesn't fall over and break" -Dylan
• "I think it is crazy that you can eat a picture (sugar print photo on cake)" - Woods
• "He makes the fish, the ocean, the shark. They put two cakes in the oven at a time. The fire truck cake has lights, sirens, and it works with electricity and the wires.  You can't eat the wires." - Owen
• "They even make a high heel cake" - Lily
• "They use the molding sugar to make persons out of it" - Marleigh
• "You can't eat the smoke on the fire truck cake" - Laila

Cake Baking

This week, we made three cakes from scratch.  As a class, we followed the recipe for the chocolate cake with sprinkles that won our cake vote last week.  Then, later in the week, Erin and Caitie both baked the layers for the other cakes two that received many votes in our voting process last week, and the students made the frosting and added the final touches.  To make the chocolate cake with sprinkles, first we checked to make sure we had all the necessary ingredients and materials.  Then, we followed the directions step by step and took turns measuring and adding ingredients, and stirring with the wooden spoon and the hand mixer.  It did not really look like cake until we added the cocoa powder and then, like magic, is became cake batter!  The next day, we made the frosting.  A few friends even helped stir the melted chocolate and butter on the stove to make the frosting base! 

We learned how to do some important baking skills this week, like: greasing and flouring a pan, leveling off a measuring cup, scraping the bowl with a spatula, cracking an egg and taking out any shell pieces, sifting dry ingredients, whisking the chocolate and butter together so it didn’t separate, holding the bowl for friends while they stir and mix, spreading the frosting carefully as to not break the cake, and washing dishes when we are all done!  We also experimented with two different kinds of mixers: a manual hand mixer and the electric hand mixer.  The manual hand mixer worked well for the cake batter, but it would have taken too long to whip the cream with that.  Both mixers involve hand-eye coordination, fine motor and gross motor physical skills. The electric mixer was fun to use too, even though it was a little noisy and it moved around in your hands. 

We also delivered cake to other teachers, who were very happy and surprised to see us!  Cake makes people smile! 

The three layer chocolate cream cake from Fine Cooking magazine!

We had the pleasure of tasting the different cakes this week.  Each child was able to sample a teeny tiny piece of at least two different cakes.  Don't worry parents, their total cake intake for the week was less than a normal sized slice of birthday cake.  We wrote "tasting notes" about each cake we tried.  We will use this information to determine which cake we want to make again for Grandparents Day, a special time coming up soon at school (more information to come home next week about that).  Since we are developing our ability to use descriptive words to explain a cake, we used our five senses to make observations about each kind of cake.  On Friday, we had a few special guests come to our classroom and taste the cake with us. We had the opportunity to share our decorating skills with our reading buddies, The Toros, from Natasha's class. They helped us all decorate our own cupcakes in the style of the Flower Cake we voted for last week. They also helped us come up with some more descriptive words we hadn't thought of yet for describing our treats! Hilary, the TVCS intern who spent last winter as a pastry chef, also came in and taught us how decorative icing works, and how to make different designs with actual decorative icing bags, tips, and icing!

The Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting and Sprinkles

What does it smell like?

"Chocolate" "Not sour"  "Coldness" "Sprinkles" "Rainbow"

What does it feel like?

"Like frosting" "Rough" "Smooth if you put your tongue to it" "Floppy" "Bumpy" "Soft"

What does it sound like when you chew it?

"Like a horse" "Like a pig" "A little crackle"

What does it look like?

"Too much chocolate!" "Sprinkles" "Chocolate" "Yummy bumps"

What does it taste like?

"Frosting" "Sprinkles" "Yum"

The Three Layer Chocolate Cream Cake

What does it smell like?

"Cake!" "Chocolate and icing" "Chocolate smells chocolately"

What does it feel like?

"Rough" "Squishy" "Smooth" "Scrunchy"

What does it sound like when you chew it?

"It doesn't sound like anything." "Like, 'tick,' 'tick,' 'tick'" "Like Bob's truck is waiting"

What does it look like?

"White with sprinkles on top"

What does it taste like?

"Awesome"

The Flower Cake

What does it look like?

"It whas sprinkles, and chocolate. It looks delicious but messy!"

"It looks like the night sky, with the star sprinkles."

"It looks like the ocean because of the colors we used. The blue could be the water, the green is the seaweed and the pink is a starfish!"

"It is a tower!"

"It is colorful."

"It looks like a bouquet of flowers!"

What does it smell like?

"Chocolate."  "It smells sugary."  "It smells like cake, of course!"

What does it feel like?

"Moist."  "Soft."  "Squishy!"  "It feels like a fluffy pillow. The cold side!"

What does it taste like?

"Sweetness."  "Chocolate."  "Vanilla."  "Like sprinkles." "Cake."

On Thursday and Friday, we went on a field trip to Broulims Grocery store. Brad, the store director, gave us a personal tour of the bakery. We saw the bakers in action, making tarts, pies, donuts, bread, cupcakes, cakes, and cookies.  We were fascinated by the gigantic mixers they use to make batter, the massive oven where many racks of bread are baked at a time and spin around, and the incredible cake decorating area. We also really enjoyed watching Dori, one of the bakers, decorate the cupcakes and cakes with frosting and sprinkles. She moved the cakes on a stand to apply the frosting and make special marks in it, just like they do in “Cake Boss.” She keeps a drawer full of frosting of all colors ready to go in pastry bags and a tower of cookie sheets filled with sprinkles and small candies of every kind imaginable!

After our tour, we walked around the grocery store searching for the key ingredients we needed to make cupcakes for Grandparents Day and bread for Harvest Party.  There are so many aisles, but we found all the things on our list. We also made many shoppers and store employees smile with our good behavior, enthusiasm for baking, and generally overwhelming cuteness. We are very proud of our class for such a fun and successful first field trip of the year!

Here are some of our favorite things about the bakery:

• “Cupcakes! Chocolate, and all kinds of cupcakes!” –Willa
• “All the chocolate.” –Gray
• “I saw so many chocolate cookies.” –Brooks L.
• “So much chocolate frosting, and someone making bread.” – Marleigh
• “The big mixer was big. The girl was scooping out the icing onto the muffins.  Dori had a scraper and she made marks all around the cake when it turned on the motor.”  -Dylan
• “I liked the mixers and the big dough one was the best. I saw the lady pouring banana juice into the mixer. Dori put snickers bars on the swirls and cherries on the swirls on the cake.” – Owen
• “I saw many cupcakes. Yellow and orange and white ones. They were the candy corn cupcakes.” – Laila
• “I liked seeing the red cookies and the M&M cookies.” – Kate
• “Pies!” – Elli R.
• “Cupcakes!” – Woods
• “The orange cupcakes.” – Ava
• “Cakes. There was a strawberry cake.” – Ellie S.
• “Muffins, they were making them when we were in there.” –Lily
• “Donuts.” –Henry
• “Chocolate cookies.” – Connor
• “The flour mixer.” – Sawyer
• “Cookies with white chips.” – Abigail
• “I saw her making a chocolate cake.” –Cash
• “Cookies.” – Cora

After a week of intensive cake making and cake tasting last week, we have turned our attention to baking bread.  We will be making bread to share at the Harvest Party on October 9^th. This week we started preparing for this task by making our first loaves of bread! As a first step in the bread making process, we worked with our Farm and Garden teacher Emily to grind grain into flour.  We studied the wheat berries up close, fascinated that these little things would become the flour we use in all our baking. After we made the flour, then we made a “soup” with honey, yeast, and warm water.  After stirring the “soup” and the dry ingredients together, we kneaded the dough, and set it aside to rise. It took over 2 hours for the bread to double in size! After closing meetings on Monday and Tuesday, we shaped the bread into a braided loaf, which is a delicate task.  After it went into the oven to bake, we were able to do the best part…eat our  warm and fabulous homemade bread!