&uot;Something smells good.&uot;

&uot;Something smells really, really good.&uot;

Those were some of the first words out of the mouths of 30 wide-eyed Trinity kindergartners when they walked into The Bread Basket bakery Monday morning.

&uot;They’ve been excited about coming,&uot; teacher Nancy Harveston said.

The field trip was part of the classes’ latest reading theme: food. One of the books the children read was about baking bread, and luckily one student &045; Alli Smith &045; has a mom who just opened a new bakery on Commerce Street.

So when the children arrived Monday morning, Mary Smith and her staff at The Bread Basket were ready with ingredients, baking pans and tools to make cookies and muffins.

The children started with one of the most important lessons: washing their hands. Everyone filed into the bathroom to wash up before touching the food.

Then it was off to the kitchen, where the children were divided into smaller groups.

At one station, the children helped set balls of chocolate chip cookie dough on pans, a quick lesson in counting.

At another station, they watched as ingredients for sugar cookies were poured into a giant mixing bowl then swished together to make the sticky dough.

And with bakery owner Mary Smith, they helped pour ingredients &045; a little bit at a time &045; into a bowl for peaches and cream muffins.

Smith said she tried to come up with a method that would encourage participation among all of the students.

And they definitely got hands-on participation. Whether it was placing thumbprints in sugar cookies or spooning muffin batter into tins, the children had sticky hands &045; and faces and clothes &045; by the time their creations went into the ovens.

After a quick cleanup, it was just a few minutes before they got to sample the chocolate chip cookies, with Kool-Aid to wash it down.

Smith said she enjoyed having the children join her and her staff in the kitchen.

As busy as Monday morning was with 30 extra pairs of hands, Smith said The Bread Basket has been busy since it opened.

The bakery has a variety of pastries and desserts in its glass case, a selection of breads and a regular lunch menu supplemented by rotating specials.

One of the lunch items is a &uot;ham&uot; burger &045; ground ham grilled and placed on a Kaiser roll &045; in the tradition of the old Home Bakery that was located at the same spot.

The Bread Basket is open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays.