Where do the holes come from? The Science of Bread.

We wanted to know how the holes got into bread so we watched Maisie making a loaf of bread ‘Yummy Good for your Tummy Bread’ and then made some ourselves.

Click here for the video showing how to make the bread

Watching the yeast fermenting and producing all those tiny bubbles is fascinating and children love to have a go kneading the bread dough.

Using fresh yeast to do this makes the science behind bread making much clearer.

After producing a really delicious loaf of bread using Maisie’s instructions we looked at the conditions needed for the yeast to work.

This is what we did:

We put the same amount of yeast in seven dishes.

Dish A … we added sugar.

Dish B … we added cold milk

Dish C … we added warm milk

Dish D …we added sugar and cold milk

Dish E … we added sugar and warm milk

Dish F … we added sugar and very hot milk.

Dish G … just yeast. Nothing added.

Then the children were asked to PREDICT which dish the yeast would work best in.

The dishes were left for 30minutes.

This dish did the best. Which was it? What conclusions did we draw?Well, you need to try the experiment out for yourselves to find out because that is what ‘Jumble Fun’ is all about! Motivating children to be ‘hands on’

A good introduction to the simple science of yeast for very young children can be found on the Jumble Fun in the ‘Science for Kids’ playlist on out channel: http://tinyurl.com/funjumbles

In this programme Lizzie Witch illustrates how to blow up a balloon using yeast

Click here for the yeast and balloon experiment

Mrs Spoon

Collecting autumn leaves is fun. They are colourful! Crispy and NOISY!

We love crunching them under our feet and watching them fall from the trees.

I take a magazine out with me and slip the leaves between the pages. That way they don’t get broken on the way home.

Once home I slip the magazine under a rug for a couple of days to flatten the leaves.

Then we’re ready to make our Mrs. Spoon.