Science: Baking Bread with the Little Red Hen

In order to learn about grains as part of our unit on nutrition, we read the book, The Little Red Hen.  The girls learned about harvesting wheat from the field, separating the seeds from the rest of the plant, grinding the seeds into flour and then using the flour to make baked goods.  They took turns grinding some wheat seeds using a mortar and pestle and discovered that it was much harder than it looked.  No wonder we have machines to do that work.  Combining ingredients and mixing the dough to make bread was more to their liking.  Each homeroom made a different kind of wholegrain bread: wheat, rye, or oatmeal.  Of course, the best part was sampling the finished product, fresh from the oven.  Mmm......!