Bake For Good: Baking In The Classroom

How one elementary school teacher decided to Bake For Good, by baking bread daily in his classroom!

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Have you heard about King Arthur Baking's Bake For Good program? This favorite company for bakers everywhere started Bake For Good as a way to encourage people to bake not just for themselves but to connect with loved ones, friends, and community members.

Here is the story of how my husband did just that with his elementary classroom community.

How baking in the classroom began

When my husband Christian was a fifth-grade teacher at Milton Elementary School in Milton, Vermont, every day he and his students assembled and baked loaves of bread right in class using a bread machine.

This daily routine began when he was looking for new ways to connect with kids in his class. On a whim, he took an old bread machine of mine to school, along with bags of flour, yeast, salt, sugar, butter, and milk.

Using the King Arthur Baking recipe for “Easy As Can Be” white sandwich bread, he had students help measure the ingredients and add them to the bread machine pan in the correct order.

That day during lessons, his students listened to the hum of the machine as it kneaded the dough. They took turns peering through the tiny window on top to see what mysterious transformation was taking place inside. In the last hour of the process, the heavenly aroma of baking bread filled their classroom and the hallways outside.

Curious kids (and teachers) from other classrooms began to pop in to see what was happening. His own students could barely wait to get to that loaf.

Once the lovely, warm, browned loaf of bread was out, it was torture to let it cool enough to cut. Then, Christian and his students sliced up and wolfed down that bread together.

From that day on, it became part of their class routine for the rest of the school year— and for every one of his classes in the years that followed!

Their daily bread

Christian began that first year of bread baking with one bread machine; as the students' excitement for fresh-baked bread grew, he tracked down a second machine to bake two loaves per day.

As those machines aged and wore out from daily use, replacement machines were donated to the classroom by our family members, colleagues, mothers of colleagues, and students’ families. One year there were three machines running daily!

Christian arranged for each loaf to be shared by four students each day, with a new group of kids getting a turn the next day. With every group, he explained the recipe and how to properly measure ingredients, and then left them in charge to assemble those ingredients in the machine and get it running. That bread became a much-anticipated part of their day.

Talk about a motivator—those fresh-baked loaves were highly coveted. When students earned an “Ultimate Pass” (given for acts of community and kindness in the classroom) they could choose rewards like extra recess, a homework pass, lunch with the teacher… or an entire loaf of fresh-baked bread. Christian said the bread was by far the most popular reward. (Even over extra recess!!)

I asked Christian why he thought baking bread in his classroom was so exciting for the students. He said one reason is that for many of those kids, it was their first experience baking bread from scratch. They got to see what goes into a loaf and learned that bread does not just come from a grocery store shelf.

Once students learned about bread ingredients, without even being asked they began to bring in those ingredients from home—like flour, butter, and sugar— to help contribute to future loaves. It became like a modern-day version of Stone Soup.

Education through bread baking

Baking bread in the classroom wasn't only about filling the room with that incredible, baking aroma or tearing into still-warm slices for a snack: it also created learning opportunities for the students.

Christian shared that there were lessons in basic measurements for the ingredients, and how to accurately fill those cups and teaspoons. (Such a critical part of successful baking!)

Not every loaf they turned out of the bread machine was perfect—some were dense, squat, or not properly baked. My husband shared that when that happened, it was the perfect chance to promote discussion and problem-solving with the students: did they add too much flour? Too much milk? Was an ingredient left out? And how these changes changed the outcome of the bread.

(He also said that no matter how less-than-perfect the loaves were, the kids ate them all anyway!)

Baking to meet those basic needs

Just as important as the educational benefit was how baking bread in the classroom met basic needs of students. Christian observed that baking bread in the classroom became a comforting routine for the kids. In addition, it became like an aromatherapy treatment as the soothing and homey scent of baking bread made everyone in the room happier, calmer, and more content.

Hunger and food insecurity is a real problem for many children, and thankfully more and more school districts have begun to provide free meals to students to address this issue. Many teachers also make snacks available to kids in the classroom to meet this need and help children be more available for learning. Fresh bread in Christian's classroom helped in this way as well.

The joy of baking can begin in the classroom

My favorite part of this story is how baking bread in the classroom influenced and inspired my husband's students as well as adults in the building.

Former students would often stop by his classroom to visit, and they always wanted to know if he was still baking bread. (And they were probably hoping to score a slice, too!) It was a part of their school experience that they really enjoyed and that stayed with them long after the school year finished.

The enthusiasm for bread baking in Christian's classroom inspired other teachers in the building to incorporate lessons around food: one teacher even taught students how to dry their own fruit.

One of the most heartwarming stories that Christian shared with me during the years of baking bread with his students was this one: how a student who, after making a loaf in the classroom for the first time, went home that day and asked his mom to take him shopping—to buy a bread machine so he could make fresh bread with his family at home.

That's how my husband Baked For Good, and inspired hundreds of children to find the joy and community in baking.

King Arthur Baking now offers virtual and in-person baking demonstrations for classrooms. Learn more about these and King Arthur's Bake For Good initiative here.

Now that you're thinking about warm, delicious, soft bread, here are a few easy bread recipes to try!