Bonjour. Mornings in Paris

Day 3

“Do you know what breakfast cereal is made from? It’s made of all those little curly wooden shavings you find in pencil sharpeners!” –Roald Dahl

 

Bonjour! (Crepes)

Preschool-Kindergarten

Subjects:

Social Studies, Arts, Language Arts, Technology, Math, Science and Nutrition

 

Purpose:

Breakfast provides us with a healthy start of the day. This lesson takes a look at the different foods people eat around the world for breakfast. Australians apparently prefer a brown spread called Vegemite on their toast in the morning; the Japanese enjoy soy beans on rice; the Moroccans like lamb stew; and Argentineans frequently sip Yerba Mate–a delicious, highly caffeinated tea. As we learn about foods around the world, we explore them through our senses, and work on sequencing through the re-assembling of our crepe recipe! Of course, then we will have to make and eat it!

 

Duration:

Two hours

 

Materials:

Large poster board to create bar graph

small post-its

NYT article (cut out pictures)

Crepe, pancake, and pastel to compare

5 senses chart

5 step recipe cards: Step 1 (gather ingredients), Step 2 (mix), Step 3 (pour batter on griddle), Step 4 (flip over), Step 5 (eat).

Video camera

 

Objectives

Learners will:

Create bar graphs to represent student breakfasts and student preferences. Identify foods and countries of origin.

Make connections to food and culture.

Make connections to food, its consumption, and food customs.

Explore foods through the senses.

 

Circle Time:

What did you eat for breakfast this morning? Create a bar graph with the following picture items on the axis: eggs, cereal and milk, fruit, bacon, yogurt, granola, pastry, oatmeal, other. Ask students what they ate and place a small post-it on top of the food item or items. When all have had a turn sharing, have students notice which food was most popular for breakfast in class.

 

Ask students questions: Do you think all children around the world eat similar breakfasts as you? Take out NYT article pictures, and notice what children are eating. Is what they are eating similar to what the students eat? Are there any foods they are familiar with? Are there any foods they would like to try? Which breakfast do they prefer? By a count of hands, see how many children would prefer the following breakfasts:

Count hands, write result on the board. Have students notice which hands were raised for the most breakfast.

 

Song:

There Are Seven Continents http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NVrN-0aQV1o

 

Small group activity:

Using the 5 senses:

Crepes are light, airy things! They are a slice of heaven! But how do they compare to pancakes, or pastel? The children will compare breakfast pastries from 3 different countries (France, US, Cuba) by working on a group "5 senses" poster.

As children taste the varieties of breakfast pastries, emphasize that the pastries are made using grains. This lesson should help your class understand how pastries and bread products are made from the growing of the grains to the science of baking.

 

Cooking Class:

Crepes(France)

Developing Skills:

math concepts, literacy skills, science concepts, social awareness

For this class, we will record our cooking experience to share with friends and family. It will be our very own cooking show a la Julia Childs!

 

Objectives:

The learner will:

Sequence recipe cards.

Read and follow the recipe.

Measure ingredients.

Work collaboratively with classmates to create a finished product.

 

Begin the class with the five sequence recipe cards. Which step comes first? What comes next? What comes last? Once the recipe has been placed in the right order, begin the crepe making process. Please note that while the children can mix ingredients, it is the teacher's job to cook the crepes on the stovetop.

For added fun, provide toppings and fillings and invite children to try completing their crepe to their liking

 

Recipe:

makes 8 crepes

1 cup all-purpose flour 2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup water

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons butter, melted

 

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and the eggs. Gradually add in the milk and water, stirring to combine. Add the salt and butter; beat until smooth.

Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.

Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side. Serve hot.

 

Centers:

ART: Using Matisse's Icarus as inspiration, students cut and paste their own cut outs.

WRITING: Create a French menu for the class restaurant to looking through French magazines and cutting out appetizing foods.

MATH: Sort and count different types of beans in groups of ten. Then, practice counting by tens.

DRAMATIC PLAY: Create your own French restaurant! Make sure you have a play cash register to ring up people for their food! Use your menus! Find wait staff and customers!

SCIENCE: Observe how soap separates grease. Wash cooking items at the sensory table. To teach this point further, try this great science demonstration. Sprinkle pepper over the top of a cup of water. Put a dab of soap on your finger and touch the center of the pepper. Show children that the soap breaks the surface tension of the water and the tension on the rest of the water pulls the floating pepper away from the soap.

 

Other Suggested Books:

books about breakfast including Max's Breakfast by Rosemary Wells , We're Making Breakfast for Mother by Shirley Neitzel, and Curious George Makes Pancakes by Margret and H. A. Key.

 

Assessment:

Observation of play and discussion.

 

School/Home Connection:

France is a beautiful country with delicious food! Julia Childs and Jaques Pepin celebrated French cuisine here in the United States and popularized it. Find an easy French recipe, or just have a baguette and cheese, and set up your own French inspired restaurant in your home! Chez ------! Enjoy a candlelight dinner. Make sure to wish each other bon appetit!

 

National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies

CULTURE

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of culture and cultural diversity.

Human beings create, learn, share, and adapt to culture. Cultures are dynamic and change over time.

TIME, CONTINUITY, AND CHANGE

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of the past and its legacy.

PEOPLE, PLACES, AND ENVIRONMENTS

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of people, places, and environments.

The study of people, places, and environments enables us to understand the relationship between human populations and the physical world.

During their studies, learners develop an understanding of spatial perspectives, and examine changes in the relationship between peoples, places and environments.

INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of individual development and identity.

Personal identity is shaped by an individual’s culture, by groups, by institutional influences, and by lived experiences shared with people inside and outside the individual’s own culture throughout her or his development.

PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION, AND CONSUMPTION

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of how people organize for the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.

In exploring this theme, students confront such questions as: What factors influence decision-making on issues of the production, distribution and consumption of goods? What are the best ways to deal with market failures? How does interdependence brought on by globalization impact local economies and social systems?

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of relationships among science, technology, and society.

Science, and its practical application, technology, have had a major influence on social and cultural change, and on the ways people interact with the world.

GLOBAL CONNECTIONS

Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of global connections and interdependence.

In exploring this theme, students confront questions such as: What are the different types of global connections? What global connections have existed in the past, exist currently, and are likely in the future? How do ideas spread between societies in today’s interconnected world? How does this result in change in those societies? What are the other consequences of global connections?

 

References:

http://www.childcarelounge.com/activity/science-experiments.php http://www.wikiart.org/en/henri-matisse/icarus-1944 http://dailyinfographic.com/breakfast-from-around-the-world-infographic http://www.examiner.com/article/how-to-create-geography-lesson-plans-cooking-around-the- world

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/08/magazine/eaters-all-over.html?_r=0 http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Basic-Crepes/