“A Bread Baking Angel in Disguise”
This week in our Preschool we started our first cooking project
of the year, and for many in our class this was the first time they had ever
made fresh homemade bread. As a cooking
teacher, it is my joy to create an easy experience in the kitchen. Preschoolers are no exception to this rule. We just have to make the experience real at
their level of development, and something that they can easily relate to and
understand.
The very first question I like to ask the students is: “How many of you get to cook at home?” Most of
the students love to answer this question.
They throw up their hands, calling,” I do, I do.”
My next question is,
“How many students do we have here today?” This immediately sets the tone, for counting
the numbers in the classroom creates a magnetism of excitement. In the Education for Life philosophy and the
flow learning created by,
Joseph Cornell /Sharing Nature Foundation, this is the
stage called
“Awaken Enthusiasm.”
I begin to explain to the children that we are in a
classroom setting, and though we are going to have fun, this is different from
cooking at home. I set the ground rules
for washing hands: Hands are washed every
time the hands go to their mouths or any other parts of their bodies. I immediately sing a song about this topic,
and we wash our hands. This starts off the good habits that all children need
to be aware of while cooking.
This first day in the kitchen was about showing them how we
were going to play what I call the cooking game. This is the
"Focused Attention" stage.
I pre-make small cards, drawing small pictures
of the recipe steps, and have each child choose their own card. This works like
magic. The children wait for their turn and their own step in the cooking
process.
As each child waits, I try to let them stir, say prayers, or bless the
adventure as we begin.
I also love to make up a story about the process for young
children. Sometimes it is a fairy tale
or just an event that they can grasp—whatever will move fast and keep their
attention.
Today’s story was about a young baby. We had to create the warm bath
for the baby, which represented the water in the recipe. The bubbles were added
to the water, a metaphor for the yeast. Then we mixed and played in the bath
water.
We added some food, which was brown sugar and flour. We then
had to have the baby rest from her bath and take a nap. The bread needed to
rise. So we gave it a blankie—a covering
for the dough.
The day progressed along these lines, keeping their
attention. “Have you ever had your
mother tell you that you needed to rest so that you would grow?” I asked as the
bread dough rose and expanded. They all looked at me with an amazed twinkle in
their eyes.
“As the baby wakes up from his nap, he has to exercise, just
like we do,” I explained. After kneading
and “exercising” the bread, the dough-baby took another nap. After two naps, it was ready to shape into small
buns.
The children were very proud of their bread, and had many
people they wanted to share it with. Throughout
the morning we sang the song, “All the World is my Friend.”
Later, as I was cleaning my classroom, I walked over to my
desk. There, to my surprise, an “Angel” had
left a beautiful bread book by; Ann Morris and photographed by Ken Heyman. This is a panoramic view about sharing bread and how many countries make bread
throughout the world.
As a teacher, you never know how you will be “connecting the
dots,” as they say, but my angel seemed to deepen the experience of bread-making
for my students. She had a very close
eye and open ear.
We do a ritual in our classroom at the closing of each day. It is called
“Shared Inspiration.” By this point in the day, the students were feeling
calmly exhilarated. We set a short time for each student to share their
favorite activity of the day. This
morning activity led to a unanimous, response from all the children. The bread making warmed their hearts and their tummies.
As our first day
of cooking came to a close, the room and hallways were filled with the smell of sweet warm
bread. This sparked much sharing, and many conversations about happy bread-baking
memories as the mothers picked up their children from Preschool. Bread and bread-making are a part of many
ancient traditions. What an inspiring
delight to share this age-old skill with our Living Wisdom community. In deep gratitude, we all felt blessed by the
angels all around us.
