- baking education
- Life Skills Bread Baking Program®
how's it work?
How does the program work?
The FREE Life Skills Bread Baking Program has reached more than 155,000 students nationwide since it began in 1992, providing kids with a fun, real-world application for skills they’re already learning in school – math, science, reading, planning, problem solving, and more. And they get to use their new skill to help people in their community.
Here’s how it works:
Teaching to an audience of students in grades 4, 5, 6, and/or 7, a King Arthur Flour instructor and two student assistants present a 50-minute demonstration on the bread baking process. Then, each future baker takes home materials, including our nutritious whole-grain flour, and the know-how to get baking! Students bake two delicious loaves – one to enjoy, the other for donation to a community organization chosen by the school. King Arthur Flour brings this exciting program to schools FREE of charge.
Students go home with the materials they need to bake nutritious bread.
what do i have to do?
Want to HOST a Life Skills Bread Baking Program® ?
- Obtain approval from your school administration/faculty to host our program
- Submit our required Life Skills application »
- Select and confirm a local organization to receive bread donations
- Reserve/confirm assembly date, location, time(s), and participating students
- Coordinate audio/video requirements
- Submit completed media form »
testimonials
What are people saying about our Life Skills Bread Baking Program®?
“I can’t say thank-you enough to everyone involved with the bread-making assignment. I had one of the best days I’ve had in a long time with my sixth-grade son. He was so confident in every step. There is so much that happens when a parent and child create something together. I was able to share some wonderful memories with him that I had forgotten about. I think our bread came out tasty and the whole experience was delicious.”– M.M., Parent Manchester, NH
“Thank you so much for coming. You were wonderful - a combination of zest, humor, and food science. Many kids and adults said they really enjoyed it and want to make bread baking a habit. What could be better than that? King Arthur Flour provides a great service by coming into schools and providing this wonderful opportunity.”– S. O’Brien, Teacher,
Bellows Free Academy Fairfax, VT
instructors
Meet our instructors
Paula Gray
Paula Gray is the Senior Life Skills Bread Baking Program® Manager/Senior Instructor for the King Arthur Flour Company in Norwich, Vermont.
Wearing an educator's hat for many years, Paula started as an elementary school teacher. She has taught in food cooperatives, community theaters, and museums, and has instructed food and cooking classes covering a wide range of topics to hundreds of customers, college and hospital employees, students, and the community at large. Paula has also worked as a baker at a Vermont farm, started and managed her own catering business, and run a successful dance fitness center.
Raised in Ohio, Paula began baking bread with her Italian grandmother, using 50-pound bags of flour, a large metal baby bathtub, and a special blanket to help the dough rise.
Paula lives in Thetford, Vermont, and when she is not baking bread with King Arthur Flour, spends her time cycling, reading, preparing extremely large salads, and searching for the best soft serve ice cream.
Pam Jensen
Pam Jensen is the King Arthur Flour Life Skills Bread Baking Program® Instructor for the Western United States, based in Utah County, Utah.
Pam has a degree in secondary education in Family & Consumer Science, and after staying home for many years raising her five children now serves as a substitute teacher in every discipline in grades 7-9. Pam is passionate about both good nutrition and the power of education to improve people’s lives.
Pam’s baking memories go back to her childhood, when she wanted to be “the lady that brings the pies to Thanksgiving,” just like her great-grandmother. She remembers fondly her grandfather’s sourdough biscuits and her grandmother’s sweet rolls, and to this day finds baking a therapeutic endeavor.
When she’s not teaching or baking, Pam enjoys spending time with her children and grandchildren, and celebrating the seasons through gardening, walking, reading, quilting, water skiing, snow skiing, and other activities.
Gina Ciancia
Gina Ciancia is the King Arthur Flour Life Skills Bread Baking Program® Instructor for New England, traveling to cities around the region from her home base in Waterbury, Vermont.
Gina has spent 8 years as a nurse in neonatal intensive care units around the country, but after deciding to turn her “impractical passion” for baking into a more serious endeavor, she attended the New England Culinary Institute, receiving dual degrees in baking/pastry and hospitality/restaurant management. Her dream is to someday open her own bakery and café.
Gina has been baking since her childhood in Utica, New York, rolling out cookies with her grandparents for enormous holiday cookie trays and watching her mother decorate birthday and wedding cakes. Her work with King Arthur Flour enables her to pursue her lifelong loves of both children and good food.
When she’s not running around New England in the name of baking education, Gina enjoys eating, trying new restaurants, watching movies, hiking, and traveling.
the recipe
The Life Skills basic bread recipe
Makes 2 loaves (takes about 3½ hours to make)
Ingredients
- 2 cups warm water
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 packet Red Star Active Dry Yeast
- 2 cups King Arthur Organic White Whole Wheat Flour
- 1 tablespoon salt
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
Directions
In a large bowl, combine warm water, sugar, yeast, and 2 cups King Arthur 100% White Whole Wheat Flour. Cover mixture with a clean towel and let stand 10 minutes until bubbly.
Stir in salt and vegetable oil.
Stir in King Arthur All-Purpose Flour, 1 cup at a time. When the dough holds together and most of the flour is mixed in, plop dough out onto a clean, floured surface.
Knead the dough. Sprinkle your hands or the work surface with just enough flour to prevent sticking. Use your dough scraper, too. After 5 minutes, take a break and let the dough rest.
Scrape out the mixing bowl, and smear a little oil all around the inside.
Knead the dough for a few more minutes. (When you lightly press the dough with your fingertips, it should bounce right back.) Put the dough into the oiled bowl, flip the dough once, and cover with plastic wrap and a clean towel. Put the dough in a warm place to rise until double in size, about 1 1/2 hours.
Gently deflate the dough and turn it out onto a floured surface. Divide the dough in half and form into desired shapes.
Grease a baking sheet; put your loaves on it. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and a clean towel and let the dough rise again for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375°F.
Carefully remove plastic wrap and slash the tops of the loaves or baguettes with a sharp knife. Bake the loaves for about 30 minutes until the crust is golden brown and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.
Cool the bread on a rack. Enjoy!
Download thevideos
Lights! Camera! Action!…
Watch video clips of the Life Skills Bread Baking Program at the the Freetown Lakeville Middle School in Lakeville, Massachusetts, December 18, 2008.
Bonus lesson!
Learn more about contemporary American agriculture with some of the farmers who grow wheat for King Arthur Flour. By viewing these documentary videos, your students can explore Families Growing Wheat, The Life of a Farmer, Preserving the Land, and the King Arthur Flour Connection with Farmers.
