Explorastory

Mmmm!  I smell something delicious!  This week’s theme is on baking.  The first thing I did after welcoming the children was tell them that there are many steps to baking.  I brought in an apron, a large mixing bowl, a spoon and a round baking dish.  In our storytime room we also have a play oven and sink, so we pantomimed the steps to making a cake (washing your hands, setting the timer and temperature, mixing ingredients, pouring it into the pan, having a grown-up help you, etc.)

When we were ready to put our pretend cake into the oven, we read some books about baking.

Books:

“Bunny Cakes” by Rosemary Wells

“Feeding Friendsies” by Suzanne Bloom

“If You Give a Cat a Cupcake” by Laura Joffe Numeroff

Click Here to Order These Books on the Heights Library Catalog

Art:  After we read our books, we took our pretend cake out of the oven.  I asked, what is done after cake is done baking?  The answer would be to frost it and eat it, of course!  At this point I brought out my art sample and showed the children how to make their very own (NON-EDIBLE) cake.  Each child and a grown up mixed together about a quarter-size worth of paint and glue.  I came around a squirted a dollop of shaving cream over their mixture and they kept mixing.  This makes the frosting.  Using an upside-down paper bowl for the “cake” part, children then stuck a candle in the top made out of a popsicle stick and a flame cut out of yellow paper.  When this was done, children frosted their cakes with the paint-glue-shaving cream mixture.  “Sprinkles” were added by using beads, jewels and glitter.  Once the cake is dried, it hardens in place.

Look at these awesome cakes!

Another great art project done with this theme is to make home-made play dough and let the children kneed the dough and make “cookies” and other baked items using rolling pins and cookie cutters.  Just letting the children play with the dough and make their own shapes allows plenty of freedom to create and have fun!