"Love at First Bite"

Funded Oct 5, 2023

I can't thank you enough for contributing to our "Love at First Bite" project. The materials from this project created an on-gong hands on exploration, engaging and discovery in a variety of mathematical (measuring), science (reactions to different ingredients when baking bread - ex.why do we need to add yeast to our bread recipe? What happens when yeast is added to our recipe? What would happen if we left out the yeast in our recipe? Several students replied "It helps the bread grow" and "the bread rises and gets bigger"), literacy (how letters are formed to create words via following several bread recipes with words/pictures), making connections to the real world around them and encouraging them to use prior knowledge and newly learned knowledge and concepts to engage in all of our interest choice areas.

The materials were all placed and arranged on the carpet before they entered our classroom and upon entering each and every one of their adorable faces lit up with smiles, exhales of "WOW", "look at all this bread", "it looks like a bakery in here". They were super excited to start learning all about our new unit of study of bread thanks to all of our donors and making this project possible.

The first baking hands on experience using the bread maker was when we all chose together to make our "Cinnamon Swirl Bread" using the recipe from the bread makers recipe hand book. The children each lent a helping hand adding ingredients to the bowl and helping to start our bread making machine :). We were all amazed how the bread maker did all the work from mixing, to kneading to cooking our delicious smelling Cinnamon Swirl Bread! Let's just say not only were we so excited to see how beautifully the bread baked and smelled but it tastes equally as yummy as it looked and smelt:).

Although the bread unit has ended, our knowledge and lessons learned from all content areas will be carried over into all of our studies and making sure we implement baking and cooking in each study using the materials you all so generously donated through your funding of our project.

Again, I can't thank you enough for your donations, support and believing in our project. You each made it magical and unforgettable for not only our young students but for the teachers as well. :)”

With gratitude,

Ms. Vargas