Baking teaches science and sharing | Positive Vibes

Last week Colvin Run Elementary School and four other Fairfax County Public schools partnered with Bake for Good, the free outreach arm of the King Arthur Baking Company to teach students how to make bread. For Colvin Run the program accomplished two things, it highlighted the scientific elements of baking and it encouraged students to give back to the community. These are two of the three tenets of the Bake for Good motto, Learn, Bake, and Share.  

According to Kathryn Friedman, the assistant principal at Colvin Run Elementary School, this is the third year that the school has partnered with Bake for Good to teach the school’s fourth-grade students how to bake bread. It’s the first year that the program was an in-school assembly. In previous years, students learned over Zoom.  

Demonstrating baking techniques to 115 fourth graders is not easy, but Leanne Reynolds, the Bake for Good coordinator, came prepared. She had a designated work space, pre-selected student assistants, and a video feed set up so everyone in the cafeteria could watch and learn.  

“I think it’s really cool that we get to make bread this year,” said Pierre, a fourth grade student at Colvin Run Elementary.  

Reynolds and her two assistants, Delilah and Puthisak, gave a detailed presentation that involved several helpful tips for the students to follow at home.  

Students learned it is best to read through the instructions twice: once to understand, and a second time, to see if there are things you might have missed. Reynolds taught them how to  measure flour and other dry ingredients using the fluff, sprinkle, and sweep method: fluff the  flour with your scoop, sprinkle it into your measuring cup, and then sweep the excess off with a baking scraper. 

“One of the reasons we love to partner with King Arthur Baking is because they do make it a learning activity for the children,” said Friedman. “Obviously we love delicious bread, but the  fact that she’s bringing the science into what’s happening while you’re baking the bread, I think  it’s such a valuable lesson.” 

Baking bread is a great way to learn a bit about science. After Reynolds stirred the initial ingredients she discussed the differences between solutions and mixtures. Students learned about gluten strands and how they bind together as the bread is kneaded. The gluten strands then determine the texture of the final loaf of bread. 

“I learned that yeast eats sugar,” said Pierre.  

“It’s like an experiment. You test the bread,” added Zoe, another fourth grade student who shared that she has “kind of” baked bread with her mother. “My mom did half of it, but I worked for some of the time when we were baking it, she checked in the oven, and then she did some of  the stuff.” 

After the assembly, all the students received tote bags full of everything they needed to bake two loaves of bread at home. The goal is for each student to eat one loaf and give the second loaf away. Students can give a loaf of bread to whoever they would like. Both Zoe and Pierre plan to bring their “share” loaf back to school. Colvin Run Elementary will donate all the collected bread to the Cornerstones Food Pantry in Reston, a local pantry where the school regularly donates.  

“I also love the fact that they’re providing this service to our students free of cost. They send all of the ingredients to us for them to make this,” said Friedman. “Service learning is at the  forefront of what we do at Colvin Run.”  

We want “our students to understand how important it is to give back and to continue to give back to our community; it is why we do what we do. I think this just goes hand in hand with fostering that relationship with our community,” Friedman added.