The Bakery

After visiting The High Tea Bakery we couldn't wait to set up our very own.  To create even more anticipation, Mrs. Mitchell, Mrs. McGregor, Miss Kroeker and Ms. Dowd helped set the stage by role playing various jobs at the bakery.

Mrs. Mitchell was eager to start to playing in the bakery so she started to whip up a batch of cupcakes.  The bakery phone rang and when she answered she took an order for 12 Star War Cupcakes from Ms. Dowd.  As she was playing, she modelled how to talk politely and introduce the bakery, write down an order, talk about the cost and then how long the order would take.

As the role play continued, each adult narrated what they were doing as they were doing it.  "I am going to go and pick up my order now. "  "Would you like some more coffee?"  "I need to make sure we have enough cupcakes and cookies on display for our customers." etc.  When introducing a new dramatic play centre, it is important to model and introduce new vocabulary to expand and enrich the play.

Before we started to play, we had a few things to prepare and practise doing first.   Mrs. Mitchell made special peppermint play dough. We practised rolling out dough, decorating cookies and then we described what we made.

We needed to make a menu/sign to let our customers know how much money each item would cost at the bakery.   As we came up with different treats to be sold, we took turns stretching out the word so we could write it down on our sign.

               

Everyone was very excited to play with the cash register.  To get us started, we practised writing our numbers by creating some special bakery play money. We also made some price tags for the different treats sold at the bakery.

The grand opening was a huge success!  We couldn't wait to put on a baker uniforms and get busy rolling, decorating, baking and serving customers!

After a few weeks, the bakery wasn't getting as much business as it once had.  In order to keep the customers coming, one friend thought that we might need to advertise.  She made her own posters and hung it up outside our classroom.  Within a few minutes, Mrs. Turner saw the poster and couldn't wait to come and buy a chocolatey treat.

     

The word spread fast and soon more posters were being made and the bakery was getting more and more customers.

      

Business was booming once again! We had to really work hard to keep up with all these new orders!

When the afternoon students learned how much advertising helped bring in new customers, they got straight to work making their own signs!  They were ready to take on the rush!

   

Gingerbread Science

After reading and comparing various Gingerbread Man stories, Mrs. McGregor help us conduct a gingerbread man experiment. We wanted to know if the gingerbread man could swim across the river rather than catching a ride with the hungry fox! We placed our gingerbread man cookie into a glass of water to see what would happen. We also decided to test different kinds of water - plain, ice and bubbly. Here are the Kinders watching to see what would happen at their different water stations: 


                        

                    

We recorded our findings and then came back together to share what we discovered. Our conclusion was that the Gingerbread could definitely not swim! He immediately sank in plain and ice water but floated in the bubbly water. Although he might be able to cross a river of bubbly water he’d fall apart before he got to the other side! 

We are AWESOME scientists!

                                                                    by Mrs. McGregor

  

High Tea Bakery

As we spend more time together in our classroom, it is important to reflect and observe the interest level at each play centre. Since the beginning of the year, the house or dramatic play area has been a class favourite!  Lately, not as many students have been choosing to spend time there.  This is a good indication that it is time for a change.

Since we have been reading different Gingerbread stories, we thought it would be fun to create a bakery in our classroom. We wanted to bake cookies just like in the stories. There was only one problem, we didn't know how or what we would need to start our own class bakery.  We needed to do some research.

We are so lucky to be part of a community filled with wonderful neighbours, beautiful parks and many local businesses.  High Tea Bakery is one of those businesses and just what we needed to help us answer our questions.  So off we went, with clipboards, questions and lots of excitement! 

The Morning Class

The Afternoon Class

Thank you so much to all the wonderful staff at High Tea Bakery!  Even though this is your busiest time of year, you graciously opened your doors and took the time to share with some very excited kindergarten students.  We can't thank you enough!

Christmas Tree Challenge

With the holidays just around the corner, we decided that we should make our classroom look a little more festive. We started by making some beaded tree ornaments, but soon realized that we didn't have a tree to hang them on. It was suggested that we make our very own tree for the classroom.

Mrs. McGregor took on this challenge!  With a few corks, branches and wood, she helped us create our very own tree.  We put the branches in order from biggest to smallest and then carefully stacked them together.  Once all the branches were added, we were ready to decorate.  We love our new Christmas tree!  Thank you Mrs. McGregor!

       

The following day,  there was a tree challenge for everyone.  We each had to design a tree to help create a Christmas tree forest.  With just 2 pieces of green paper, 5 popsicle sticks and some tape, we set to work using the criteria as a guide.  

                            

After cutting out a green paper tree, many of us taped one stick to the bottom.  We went to the testing station only to find that it wouldn't stand up on its own.  Because this was a challenge, we knew we couldn't give up.  We had to think of another way to make our tree stand up. Some of us tried, two sticks, then three and four... but still the trees wouldn't stand up.

After a lot of perseverance and some failed attempts, we heard cheering! One of our friends had figured out a way to get his tree to stand upright.  He made a base out of the popsicle sticks and then taped the tree to the base. 

Then, there was more smiles and proud faces.  We saw that there was more than one way to get our trees to stand up. Some used paper as the base and others used carefully placed popsicle sticks for balance. 

Some of us couldn't get our trees to stand up and were getting frustrated.  Instead of giving up, we looked at some of the other trees for inspiration. After careful observation and a few very helpful friends, everyone was able to complete the challenge.   

This friend was so inspired by a classmates tree that he had to try out his design for himself.

More testing in the afternoon.

Lots more clever ideas here! 

These friends were able to make their tree stand on the first attempt!!  

This friend couldn't believe it when he finally got his tree to stand!  What a proud learning moment!!