B is for Baking Blueberry Banana Bread

Most of my class is at an exciting phase of phonological awareness.  They are starting to put things together; starting to understand how letters make sounds and those sounds make words.  They are on the verge of being able to stretch out words to make guesses as to how to spell them.  They love to look for letters everywhere- on posters, on signs, in books- everywhere.  They are starting to recognize words or guess at words; just yesterday a child saw the word "Same,"  and said to me that has "S- A, like Santa!"  It is an exciting, exciting part of their learning.  They are absolutely fascinated with letters and words printed and written.
Today,  we made Blueberry Banana Bread to cover many bases.  I started by making a sign with the recipe on it and hanging it up on a board where we were baking.  Before we started baking we examined the recipe- I read them the ingredients and the instructions and then they pointed out things they noticed.  They noticed all the "B's" at the beginning and launched into a partial recitation of the "Berenstain's B Book,"  they told me about all the numbers they could "read" that talked about measurement, and some other things like the "T" for "tablespoon" is like "T" for "Tommy" in our class, etc.
Then the best part- making the blueberry banana bread!  Baking really does hit so many bases in preschool- there's measurement, motor involvement like pouring and stirring, literacy, and sensory! For mashing bananas, (and in other recipes for mixing),  I give them gloves and let them get right into it with their hands.

Here's the recipe we used (if you are interested).

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 medium ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 cup fresh blueberries (or 1 3/4 cup of frozen blueberries, thawed) 

Directions

1. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. In a large mixing bowl, cream the shortening and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Beat in bananas. Gradually add the dry ingredients, beating just until combined. Fold in blueberries.
2. Pour into a large, greased loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

We ate our bread for snack, (it came out really well!), and I sent them each home with two pieces of the bread in a ziplock bag with the recipe.  This class often asks for recipes- even for things that are prepared by the cook in the kitchen for their meals to take home to their parents!