We make a special snack every week but after watching the pleasure the children had making biscuits yesterday, I’m thinking of having a weekly dough making event.
Have a peek…
In the past years we have made bread, pretzels, and other dough recipes.
It’s always the same reaction,
the children are totally involved right up to their elbows.
There is so much learning happening when we bake together;
patience, taking turns, sharing, measuring, scooping and leveling, hygiene,
and the language that evolves is wonderful to hear.
We, the grown ups in the room, learn from the children a fresh look at the materials.
We give words to their experience and use what we've learned the next time with bake together.
Problem solving was evident too.
When I said we needed to flatten out the dough (I had rolling pins ready off to the side)
a couple of children started to smack the dough with their hands.
The next thing we could hear is every child at the table doing the same thing.
It sounded like communal drumming.
No rolling pins were dirtied in this baking adventure.
We used our drinking glasses as cutters
and I watched children try to figure out how to get the dough out of the cup after cutting it.
A grandma leaned over and shook her grandson’s hand demonstrating how to do it. That was all the other children needed to get the job done themselves.
Others played with the dough for sometime.
Flattening, rolling, squishing, mixing it in flour.
These simple activities remind us that we don’t need expensive toys or materials for the children to learn and discover.
Making dough is an activity that can be done by even the youngest that can sit at the table. It won’t hurt them if they eat it and since they each have their own amount of dough, germs are not being spread.
We will make some kind of dough each week for the next month
and see how it fits in to our program.
I’ll have to alternate the day each week so all children have an opportunity to participate.
