Bread Making: Agege Bread 🍞

This week marked the seventh week of our ongoing topic, Bread Making from Around the World, and the nursery children enjoyed making Agege bread, a traditional bread from Nigeria. Over the past several weeks, the children have explored a variety of breads from different cultures and have thoroughly enjoyed taking part in each bread-making experience. They eagerly participated in every stage of the process, carefully pouring, mixing, measuring, and weighing the ingredients before kneading the dough and shaping it into loaves.

Throughout the activity, the children explored different textures, observed how the ingredients changed when combined, and watched with excitement as the dough rose before baking into delicious bread. They enthusiastically discussed what they could see, smell, and feel and were proud to taste the finished bread together.

This experience supported learning across several areas of the EYFS. It promoted Communication and Language as the children listened carefully to instructions, learned new vocabulary such as ingredients, knead, dough, and measure, and talked about the changes they observed throughout the process.

Physical Development was enhanced through pouring, stirring, kneading, and shaping the dough, helping to strengthen the children's fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and hand muscles.

The activity also developed Mathematics as the children counted, measured, and weighed ingredients while exploring mathematical language such as full, empty, more, less, heavy, and light.

By learning about Agege bread and its Nigerian origins, the children broadened their understanding of different cultures, supporting Understanding the World by recognising and celebrating traditions from Nigeria. This activity also reinforced the children's understanding that bread is enjoyed in many different countries and cultures, building on the knowledge they have developed throughout our seven-week bread-making journey.

Finally, the children demonstrated Personal, Social and Emotional Development by taking turns, working cooperatively, sharing equipment, and showing pride in their achievements. Expressive Arts and Design was encouraged as they creatively shaped the dough, explored the sensory experience of bread making, and expressed their ideas throughout the activity.