Polka-Dots and Pastries

Winter Long Weekend is February 7- February 10. Classes resume at 10:00am on Feb 11. Enjoy!

Rest blankets were sent home to be washed. Please return them on Tuesday in their blue bag.

Your child’s folder was sent home with a Scholastic Order form. We will submit orders next Friday, February 14th. Here’s the link to order online:

Connect to Our Class Page: https://orders.scholastic.com/PBFGL Thanks for your support!

Baking Show and Share: Please send in a photo of your child baking or with a favorite birthday cake or family dessert. Often desserts are at the center of special moments or holiday celebrations. Think Christmas cookies, Thanksgiving pies, Sunday cinnamon rolls, or that Elsa birthday cake they wished for! This will be a chance for the children to share a special time in their life when they created or enjoyed a memorable dessert. You can send in a photo by Tuesday, February 11th through talking points, email, or even send in a hard copy. Thank you for your help and for sharing a special memory with us!

We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day on Thursday, February 13th. Thank you to the families that signed up to provide items for the party. Please make a valentine box with your child that is large enough to hold plenty of cards and treats and bring it to school any time the week of Valentine’s Day! You can leave your child’s valentines blank or address them to each child. If your child would like to have the names of their classmates on their valentines here is a class list:

Ollie

Bodhi

Noah

Sophia

Leonardo

Izaak

Henry

Mylah

Forrest

Lola

Heidi

Hailey

Lucas

Bradford

Kipton

Wendell

Rory

Bria

Scarlett

Emma

Dax

Hunter

Stylee

Hello JK families,

Our classroom is filling up with cakes, cookies, donuts, pies, and more but a few things are missing to make the space feel like a bakery. After last week’s wonderful conversation about what we needed to house our confections, we set to work by starting with the walls of our structure. Based on drawings from the children, we came to a consensus that the building should be gray with colorful polka-dots. Using large pieces of cardboard, and nearly a gallon of gray paint, the children had a ball painting the walls of the bakeshop. They had to stretch to reach the center or jump in the middle and paint around themselves carefully. We did our best, but paint shirts were no match for such hands on fun! After the gray background dried, the children used sponges and bowls to print big and small polka-dots on the walls. Lucas then stated: “We need a roof!” The ideas just keep coming! Speaking of ideas, we really wanted to hear what the children had to say about different aspects of the bakery. We decided to divide the children up into four small groups: menu, supplies, payment, and decor based on their interests. We then met with each group and had a brainstorming session. They talked and bounced ideas off each other. Then they took some time to sketch out some of these concepts. Here are a few soundbites from each of the brainstorming sessions:

Decor Group:

How should we decorate the inside?

“Let’s draw some ingredients, powder, and some eggs, water.” -Emma

“We could put the mixer things and bowls.” -Emma

“Some more lights of cats.” -Emma

“We need a register.” -Dax

“Put numbers on tables.” -Dax

Menu Group:

What should we have available?

“Cake. What about snowman cookies?”- Sophia

“Cookies and cream. Jelly donut. We cannot forget about banana bread. My favorite!”-Mylah

“Maybe we can have some milk and cookies, chocolate cookies to dip in milk.” -Stylee

“Strawberries. Cupcakes. Donut Bread.” -Bodhi

“Bear cookies. Rainbow-colored.” – Henry

Payment Group:

Where are we going to put how much each item is?

“I want to put it right by the cookies or the cakes. Like on the tray.” -Lucas

“I want to put them (what is bought) in a baggie.”- Scarlett

“The cakes can be $11.00. The pizza can be $10.00” -Kipton

“You have to sell chocolate covered pancakes. $2.00. The person cookie should be $100.00, it is a famous one.” -Forrest

“Chocolate. $3.00.”- Izaak

Supplies Group:

What do we need to run the bakery?

“Napkins, Plates, Forks, and Spoons.” -Noah

“Flowers outside.” -Bria

“Tables and chairs. A balcony for the tables outside.”- Rory

“We need a place where they make the food.” -Rory

“They make the food in a kitchen.” -Ollie

“There’s an oven in a kitchen.” -Bradford

As you can see, we have a lot of wonderful ideas that will come to life in the weeks ahead. We also spent some time getting messy with sensory play inspired by baked goods. The children played in cake batter cloud dough, and shaving cream and orbees to mimic icing and sprinkles!

In Phonics, the class spent time practicing the sound and formation of the letter Gg. The children continue to work in their small focus groups to build their pre-reading skills.

In math our student teacher, Miss Trista, taught a lesson on counting that incorporated pretend chocolate chip cookies, made by the children! See her infographic below for more details. The kiddos also learned the terms, whole, 1/2, 1/3, and 1/4, and even practiced cutting these amounts from a whole cookie. Real baking is inevitably around the corner, and measurement will be an important part of the process.

Next week, we will shift our focus to our upcoming holiday, Valentine’s Day. The children have loved writing “love,” drawing hearts, making them out of floam, and adorning their clothes with heart stickers.

We wish you a wonderful winter break and look forward to celebrating all things LOVE next week!

All the best,

Miss Liz & Miss Claire

Painting the Bakery Walls