Baking Club in and after-school setting? Crazy right? Well if you have access to a microwave and a small toaster oven it can be done! And don’t think baking club = edible baked goods. It can be so much more. It also will add that extra special something to keep children excited. And remember — this club will require adult supervision at all times.
1) Pop Art Boards
These fun boards can be found at S&S Worldwide. The boards start out flat. Then children color them with markers and hand them to an adult. The adult then places it in the toaster oven for a short time and poof! The board now looks raised up — like popcorn.
2) Shrink Art
Also known as shrinky-dinks! Shrink art can be colored with permanent markers without much work. If you’d like to be extra fancy you can sand them down a bit, trace black and white clip art images with black sharpies, and color them with colored pencils. This helps makes the craft appealing to younger and older grades and you can vary the difficulty level. Once the children complete their project the adult will place them in the toaster oven and watch them shrink.
Now this one is super fun. And yes it is edible. Let the children know in advance to bring in a coffee mug from home. You can even allow a little sharing time for the children to share special words about their mug. Then make sure to have some coloring sheets or other alternative activity handy so you can call up the children one a time to mix their ingredients. Then the adult will place their mixture in the microwave and two minutes later they will have a muffin!
