Tuesday, November 21st, 2017

Today, the class baked peanut butter blossoms.  You can imagine the excitement!  There were 19 students and one teacher and about 10 ingredients.  I needed to divide and conquer.  Everyone wants to help - lots of help.  I divided the class into thirds - 10 on computer, 5 baking and 5 reading Thanksgiving books (not a whole lot of reading went on).  We made 2 batches and rotated so everyone had a chance to add something, mix, scoop the dough, and roll in sugar.  They learn about baking, fractions, and cleanup.
Here are some of the learning opportunities that I would like to share:

Mason went to add 1 teaspoon of salt when the recipe called for 1/2 teaspoon, Addy added 1 cup of flour when the recipe called for 2 cups, Owen had a 1/2 cup in his hand to add soda which was really 1/2 teaspoon, Tharin shook the peanut butter off the spatula and peanut butter went everywhere, Jackson put peanut butter in the 1/2 cup measuring cup, but it wasn't full and there was more on the outside than in it, Karlee rolled the cookie in the sugar by shaking the bowl - sugar going everywhere,    some students really used a lot of muscle when rolling their cookie in the sugar - they were odd shaped cookies, spacing cookies on the cookie sheet was a new concept for most,

But:
Everyone pitched in for clean up, all the computers were plugged in, the cookies got baked, the books escaped greasy fingers, and the room smells like peanut butter.  I can't think of a better way to spend a Tuesday morning!