Lately, the toddlers had many things to celebrate! They learned about Holi and made colourful cards to celebrate this festival. They wore green clothes and painted by dipping nature items into green paint to create unique St Patrick's Day artwork. Then, to celebrate National Pi (3.14) Day on March the 14th, they took on a particularly challenging task of making delicious mini apple pies from scratch! Completely from scratch, and done over three days so the children could take their time and be part of each step to make their individual pies!
We started one day with a dough recipe. The toddlers washed hands and then met at the table. Together they took turns going around the table to add the dry ingredients into the bowl. Afterwards, they dropped cubes of greasy butter into the mixture and carefully covered them with the flour. Then, for the first time in our class this year, the toddlers were introduced to the pastry hand blender! It took a lot of determination and strength, plus some teamwork with an educator, to push the hand blender through the butter to mix it into the dry ingredients, creating a crumbly texture. Ice cold water was sprinkled over the mixture in the last step to help push the dough together to create a ball, then patted into four dough discs to chill in the fridge. The first step was then complete!
The toddlers continued to amaze us with their skillset, determination, and confidence as they entered day two of pie making! It was now time to prepare the cinnamon apple pie filling! Each child was given the opportunity to cut apple slices into smaller pieces with a butter knife. This is a form of risky play that provides each child a chance to challenge themselves and build on their skills, while gently being guided and supervised by their educators. They used their hand-eye coordination, and fine motor skills to complete this step before building on their early math skills as they measured out the water, butter, sugar and cinnamon to add to the apples. Mrs. Brenda then heated the apple mix on the stove, creating a yummy aroma throughout the centre before storing this as well in the fridge.
Day three -the final day of baking! Dough was made and chilled, apple pie filling was complete, and now it was time to build the individual pies! The chilled dough was spread on the table with a dusting of flour before the children were invited over to flatten it with a rolling pin. It took some real effort for the children to push hard enough to make this happen, but as usual they were up to this important and fun challenge! Afterwards, each child cut out two circles to make both the top and bottom crusts of their own pie. The dough was assembled into a muffin tin, briefly chilled (this step helps prevent dough shrinkage) and then the toddlers used a scoop to fill their pie dough with the delicious smelling apple filling. The final touch? The children helped poke holes in the top of their pie with a fork, adding their initial to the top of their pie, giving them ownership over their hard work.
After three busy days of learning how to bake a pie, the pies were ready. At afternoon snack they were handed out to the children, each child getting the pie they created from start to finish.
The excitement on their faces as they saw the product of their hard work handed to them as a delicious treat was priceless! Maverick was first to form his thoughts into words when handed the mini pie, these words were then echoed by some of the other small bakers, as they all beamed with pride and a hint of disbelief saying " I made this?!!" A few short minutes later and many of the pies had disappeared! What a delicious way to learn so much! Mmm, yummy!
