As the students started to filter in, Alva walked up to me and said, "Teacher, do you have more dough? A LOT of kids are coming." There were six batches of homemade, chilled sugar cookie dough sitting out on five of the six tables that were set up, along with flour, rolling pins, and cookie cutters. Soon the kitchen was full of students. They all washed their hands and gathered around the tables. Matt, Emily, and Zach started explaining how to roll out the dough and cut out the cookies. Zach would slam his hand, palm down, onto the table to demonstrate proper cookie cutting technique and all the students at the table would jump! One boy even looked him in the face and said, "Really?!" As the cookies were being cut out the students would bring them up to the front where there were baking sheets ready and waiting. The students tried to divide the dough up amongst themselves, but if there wasn't a lot, without being told, they stepped aside and made sure that everyone had a turn cutting out the cookies. Soon the first tray had filled and was in the oven. Matt became our oven master, sliding full sheets of un-baked cookies in, watching them as the became that lovely golden brown, and them pulling them out when they were just right.
As Matt manned the oven, Zach and Emily continued to work amongst the students. Zach carried a bag of flour with him for the students that needed a little extra at their table. Emily organized students to help scoop the cookies off the hot baking sheets and onto the cooling racks. She also helped to over see the loading up of empty cookie sheets.
Mark took charge of the frosting station. He and a group of girls set out to mix up green and red frosting for all the cookies armed only with a recipe. It turned out really well though! And soon they were doing a test run to check the consistency.
As the last cookies were being slid into the ovens, the students started cleaning up their tables. They helped wash the dishes they'd used, put away the rolling pins, and then wipe down their tables. That way, they were ready for phase two: decorating. The cookies soon were distributed to each table, along with a tin of red frosting, green frosting, and multi-color jimmies. Of course, this is the hard part, because there's all these cookies in front of you. Pretty soon we noticed that the students weren't just decorating the cookies; they were also eating them!
This is when Mark made the announcement that we were going to hand out cookies while we carol next week. We allowed each of the students to eat ONE cookie, then we asked that they bag the rest. Two per bag. Don't seal it, otherwise there will be condensation and they'll get soggy. Most of the students were great! Alva sat and acted as quality control as she put the packaged cookies into the red bag we'd brought to carry them. After fifty-some bags, we told the students that they could eat the rest or take them home with them.
Two and half hours later, the kitchen was as clean as we'd left it with everything in it's place. All the cookies had either been eaten, packaged, or taken home. The students had done a great job, both with the cookies themselves and helping to clean up. Emily and I guestimate that over 200 cookies were made last night! And it was a wonderful holiday experience for us to have with the students. :)
Sounds like a fantastic evening!!! :)
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