This week we baked ten loaves of bread for the Harvest Party next week! Every student has participated in the bread baking process, including learning how to knead the dough, which is a very important skill to learn as aspiring bakers. This is an art form in itself with many things to think about. You need to have the right amount of flour so that the bread doesn’t stick to your hands or to the table.  Then, when you knead it, you have to fold the bread over onto itself and gently smush it down again and again until it feels just right: not too sticky, not too hard, and all together in one big ball. We have become quite proficient at kneading the dough and taking turns while working together, which are essential skills for any collaborative project and taking on a task like baking enough bread for the whole school to enjoy next week.

On Thursday, we presented the students with the challenge of writing down the recipe as we made the bread.  We are learning how to write common cooking measurement terms and the abbreviations, like cup (C) and tablespoon (T). We also sounded out the spelling for the most common ingredients in baking, like flour, yeast, and salt. On Friday, a small group of students took on the next challenge of making the bread dough all by themselves without a grownup telling them what to do next.  This involved both precise and approximate measurement technique, decoding the written recipe for help with the next steps, fine and gross motor physical skills to mix the ingredients and knead the dough, and collaboration amongst a team that was occasionally confused.  They emerged victorious, with bread that rose as it should, and a few braided loaves that look more like a twist but delicious none the less!  Well done team!  Over the course of the whole project, all students will be challenged to create and bake recipes on their own. We are excited to prepare students for these challenges in the weeks to come by learning more about specific baking ingredients and baking techniques. Stay tuned for more exciting work ahead!

Here are some reflections on making bread on your own:

·         “We put in too much yeast.” – Murphy

·         “We need to flour the table.” – Marleigh

·         “Put flour in hands too or it will stick.” – Dylan

·         “Leave flour on the table for the bread. Put flour under the bread.” – Owen

·         “Putting in the ingredients and mixing it was easy.” –Dylan

·         “Kneading was hard. I didn’t know what it should look like.” – Marleigh

·         “I liked putting our hands on the dough. That is fun.” – Murphy

·         “I think it (the dough) will get really big.” – Owen

·         “It will grow puffy like a baker’s hat.” – Dylan

·         “In the Henry Hucklemaster movie, Henry put too much yeast in and it grew out of the house.  I think our dough will grow right out of the school.” –Murphy

·         “It might make a crash landing. I’m worried it might be too big.” – Marleigh

·         “Our bread was square and squished in the bowl, not round like the other days.” – Owen

·         “We will check on it after rest time.” – Dylan

·         “If it is not big then, we will have to start over. I’m panicking about the bread.” – Marleigh

·         “If it is really big, we’ll chase it because it will roll. Bread dough does not have legs.” – Murphy

“We’ll braid it at closing meeting. We will lead the braiding.” – Owen

On Monday we made cupcakes! We followed our favorite recipe from our great cake week a few weeks ago when we made our three top choice recipes from our cake research.  The tasting results concluded that these cupcakes were the best tasting. We made these as a special treat for Grandparents who came to visit our classroom this week. Our favorite parts of baking this week were cracking the eggs, mixing the batter, scooping it into the cupcake liners, and carrying it over the bake in the big school. We were very careful not to drop to cupcakes and took turns checking to see if they were done or if they needed more time in the oven. The school smelled amazing because of our exceptional baking. 

On Tuesday and Wednesday we had a few grandparents and special friends visit our classroom.  We love having new friends come to our classroom and see our school!  We spent time decorating our cupcakes together, squeezing the bag of frosting to make designs on our cupcakes. Students who did not have a grandparent here were able to work with another child’s grandparent too. We were so happy to have such wonderful grandparents who were willing to adopt an additional grandchild for the day.  We enjoyed talking with visitors about our baking project and working on our decorating skills with the help of adults. 

This week, we investigated a question that came up last week during our baking: Is yeast alive?  We experimented with yeast by mixing it with other ingredients in zip lock bags.  On Monday, we mixed:

1)    Yeast, warm water, sugar and salt

2)    Yeast, cold water, and salt

3)    Yeast, warm water, and sugar

Then, we waited to see what would happen.  The bag with yeast, warm water, and sugar expanded like a balloon to a huge and puffy size!  We think “the air comes out of the yeast” (Owen) and “something invisible makes it happen” (Smith).       

On Tuesday, we experimented again with yeast by mixing it with other ingredients in zip lock bags.  After noticing what happened the day before, we wondered: is it the warm water or the sugar that makes the yeast grow?  This time, we mixed:

1)    Yeast, salt & warm water

2)    Yeast, salt, sugar & warm water

3)    Yeast, sugar, & warm water

4)    Yeast, salt, sugar, & cold water

We noticed that the bag with the yeast, sugar, and warm water also blew up like a balloon, again! Hmmm.  We are still now sure what this means and we will need to do more experiments next week to figure it out once and for all.  We do know that the yeast is making the air in the bag, and that the sugar and/or warm water has something to do with this. 

Meanwhile, here are some of our observations and questions from the yeast experiment:

Can yeast be alive and not alive at the same time? –Dylan

We think the sugar and the warm water makes the yeast grow.  We think the cold water makes it not get big. - Owen, Lily, & Dylan

I think the warm water makes everything grow. Cold water makes people grow. Yeast is puffy on its own. Warm water helps it to get puffier. Sugar helps to get it the most puffy. Salt doesn’t do anything. The air comes out of the yeast. – Owen

If we don’t have water then the yeast will be thirsty and dead. This one doesn’t have salt. I don’t know what that will do. If we don’t shake the bag, it will still be puffy. – Leo

Sugar and warm water makes the bag puffier. –Willa

Salt and sugar? It doesn’t matter.  Only the warm water matters. – Sawyer

This is like a Scooby Doo episode…of baking! – Henry & Bennett

Is it the warm water? I wonder about that. – Henry

The yeast is not talking. It is expanding. Maybe something invisible makes it happen, makes the air. Does only the water do it? – Smith

Yeast is not alive. We use it to bake. – Elli

In conjunction with this experiment, we are also discussing the question: What is alive? Why? What makes something alive?  

Here are some thoughts:

People are alive because they talk. –Kate

Bunnies are alive because they hop. An elephant is alive because it drinks and eats. – Dylan

An ant is alive because it crawls. –Ava

Tigers are alive because they eat and hunt. A spider is alive because it drinks blood and eats. – Owen

An airplane is alive because it lives in a hanger. – Gray

A bird is alive because it flies, eats, and lays eggs. Bears are alive because they growl.

– Willa

A bee is alive because it makes honey. –Ellie

A unicorn is alive because it breathes. –Abigail

A horse is alive because it eats. –Elli

A dinosaur is alive because it eats. –Brooks H

Erin’s baby is alive because it grows, moves, eats, sleeps, and has a heartbeat! –Willa, Dylan, & Owen

A butterfly because it flies and eats. –Lily

A dog is alive because it eats and drinks and breathes. –Leo

A falcon because it makes energy and it has air. –Bennett

A bear because it eats and breathes. –Henry

A horse is alive because it eats and breathes. –Murphy

A butterfly is alive because it flies in the air. –Cash

A kitty cat is alive because it is born.  When it is born, it is a kitten. –Carly

A cow is alive because it eats grass. –Connor

A hawk is alive because it eats bugs and other fuzzy animals like a kitten. An eagle is so big that it can eat a kangaroo. –Sawyer

We continued our yeast experiments this week.  The supporting question we used to help us answer the bigger question of “is yeast alive?” was a more specific question based on what we learned about yeast last week: is it the warm water or the sugar that makes the yeast grow? Through our experiments, we learned that when the sugar and the warm water were added to the yeast, it made the zip lock bag fill up with air.  After much discussion, we determined that because the yeast “eats” and “breathes” and “grows,” it must be alive.  After some internet research, we discovered that yeast is a microorganism, a sugar eating fungus.  Just like a Pre-K student, yeast loves sugar! We learned that we cannot see it with our own eyes. It is super (we said “super” twenty times to get the idea) small!  We cannot see it with our classroom microscope, because we need a more powerful microscope like one used in a real lab.  We looked at pictures of what yeast looks like under a microscope.  It looks like “eggs,” “rocks,” or “bubbles.”  We watched a short movie of yeast “budding and shmooing,” which is how they make more yeast.  Wow!  This was an exciting week for science in the Pre-K!  Next week, we will conduct more yeast experiments to determine which kind of sugar the yeast likes the best.  Will it be cotton candy? Halloween candy? Honey?  Stay tuned.    

Below are the insights and observations your children made this week during experiments, while looking at images of yeast, and while watching the short videos:

Water makes the yeast grow bigger. The yeast drinks it. The sugar is what the yeast eats. A yeast baby grows when yeast has another yeast next to it. (Carly)

Yeast eats sugar. It needs water to grow. It drinks water. It looks like water moving. (Leo)

Yeast grows. It is tiny, then it grows. (Rowan)

It makes other yeasts. That is so cute. (Sawyer)

It needs sugar to live because or else it will die. I need food and a drink to live. (Lily)

That is a new yeast! It eats sugar. It eats candy. It needs water. (Willa)

It’s a baby bubble! The more there is water, the more there is yeast. (Abigail)

Maybe it is a head? A sparkle? Sprinkles like on a cake? No…it is a yeast. It’s not growing like Erin’s baby is. (Bennett)

The yeast is thirsty. It needs water to grow. It has sugar to eat. (Henry)

Yeast eats all different kinds of sugar. When the sugar is in the water with the yeast it makes the bag big. The yeast and water (only) makes it a little big. Yeast is sometimes alive. (Dylan)

Yeast needs water. (Laila)

It eats honey. I gave the yeast honey with Owen, Dylan, & Marleigh when I was baking bread. (Murphy)

The yeast and warm water and sugar made the bag expand. It eats sugar or honey. Water makes yeast alive, actually, the hot water does it. (Smith)

It might eat sugar from an apple. (Ava)

It maybe eats sugar cereal. (Brooks L)

Does it eat butter? Is there sugar in butter? (Brooks H)

Yeast is sometimes not alive, like in the fall, like the garden. (Gray)

I think the yeast is breathing the air, making the air in the bag. Yeast needs sugar to eat. It needs to eat to grow. It needs water to drink…and for a bath in case it gets dirty. I wonder if it likes cotton candy the best. (Owen)