The Making of a Tortilla
Purpose:
-
To use the food pyramid to show how a tortilla is a well-balanced meal.
-
To make and eat a tortilla
Materials:
-
Round corn Tortillas, beans or meat, shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, shredded cheese, and maybe some sour cream, plates, paper, crayons, and paper, food pyramids poster.
Procedure:
-
This lesson would be taught only after the food pyramid and all its components have been introduced.
1. Each ingredient listed above must be categorized in one of the food pyramid sections.
-
tortilla-bread & grains
-
tomato/lettuce-vegetables
-
cheese/sour cream-dairy
-
beans/meat-proteins
2. Each child will be given a sheet of paper and some crayons.
3. They are to draw a large Triangle and section it off like the examples of a food pyramid like you have.
4. They are to then draw the different ingredients to a tortilla in its proper place and its proper color.
5. They are to be displayed around the room.
6. Then each child is given a real tortilla, on a plate, and are allowed to build their own to eat.
Drink and a dessert may also be provided but not necessary.
Conclusion:
-
1. Can you name all the sections of a food pyramid?
-
2. Is a stacked tortilla a complete, balanced meal?
-
3. How important is it to eat from most of the food groups everyday? Why?
Ghana - Yam Festival
To build background I would tell the students that in the following holiday they will learn some of the games played by children in Ghana, a country in western Africa.
Eating is always important but games mark the happy part of this celebration.
I will make a web of the different games played in the United States.
_____
tag --------- ( games)------------- hide and seek
/ -------- \
/ \
hopscotch duck. duck, goose
We will discuss how each game is played. Then I would tell them game are not the same all over the world.
I will have the students work in pairs to list their favorite games such as:
Favorite Games
-
1. Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?
-
2. Wonder ball
-
3. kick ball
-
4.
-
5.
-
6.
I would ask one person from each pair to explain how their favorite game is played.
As a vocabulary strategy I have all the words listed on the board and have each child look them up in the dictionary. Allowing them to use the pronunciation key as a guide, I would randomly choose students try to pronounce one word from the list until all the words have been properly pronounced. I would help with the phonetic break down of a word, if necessary.
Then the students would read the definitions and give the meaning to me in their own words. (It may be necessary for me to put the word in a sentence so that the correct definition may be applied.)
The Key Words to define are:
-
1. yam
-
2. season
-
3. abundance
-
4. somersault
-
5. collect
-
6. Ghana
-
7. maize
-
8. competition
-
9. leap
-
10. harvest
After the reading a following direction lesson will be given using a game played in Ghana.
This is the Guided Student reading Sheet. It is to be photocopied and given to each student.
Ghana - Yam Festival
@Text:The Yam Festival is a yearly children's festival which is held by the children of Agona district, in Ghana, just as the rainy season comes to a close. It is generally held in the first and second weeks of the month of August. Just before this time food may have been scarce so this is cause for a big celebration. Fresh yams and cocoyams are ready for harvest, and dry maize is in abundance. Beans and okra are ripe.
The Adults have their own version of the Yam Festival known as the "To Hoot at Famine." This is a competition of sorts between the women. Fresh yams are harvested and borne on the heads of women gardeners. The reward is to be known as the best farmer of the town for bringing the biggest and ripest yams.
The adult festival and all it entails may go on for about a week, but the children may go on for two weeks. The children under twelve collect food items from their houses and gather together in an open place, where the girls begin to cook the food. When all is ready, the young are invited to come and dine with them.
After this repast, games are played. Two popular boys' games are somersault and throw-and-catch. For somersaulting a thick and solid coconut palm branch is cut and fixed into a hilly ground. The girls stand by and cheer the best performers. Odo, throw-and-catch, is another exciting game. A fairly thick tassel is made of palm leaves, with the midribs removed. The boys divide into two sides. The tassel is thrown into the air, and while is falling back, the players stand with loops made of fiber to catch it. Whoever catches it gains a point for his group.
The girls also divide into two sides and play a game in which a pair of players, one from each side, leap up, each stretching a leg forward at the same time. If the players stretch out different legs, as a left and a right, one side counts a point. If they stretch out the same leg, a right-right or left-left, the other side gets a point. Boys have a similar game, but they throw out their arms instead of their legs and they keep time by clapping instead of jumping.
Notice how maize or corn is common in this culture as well as Mexico.
This holiday shows thankfulness for the harvest and ingathering.
Following Directions Lesson
Purpose:
-
To reinforce following direction skills
-
To learn a new game
Materials: at least six people
Procedure:
-
1. The students will be divided into two equal groups.
-
2. One player from each side leaps up and stretches one leg forward at the same time.
-
3. If the players stretch our different legs, as a left and a right, one side gets a point.
-
4. If the players stretch out the same leg, a right -right or a left -left, the other side gets a point.
-
5. The first side to get ten points wins.
Conclusion:
-
1. How many times did the directions have to be repeated?
-
2. How many students can explain the directions to a newcomer? (call on two to explain)
-
3. Can a round of the game be played without adult intervention? (demonstration necessary)
Israel - Succoth/Sukkoth
To build background I will tell the students that the next celebration takes place in Israel, a country in the Middle East. It is called, Succoth, sometimes spelled Sukkoth. This is a harvest celebration that involves fruits, flowers, and green branches.
I will have the students brainstorm all the fruit they know. Then after putting these on the board I will add a few they may not know or have not mentioned. We will discuss how we like these prepared. Fresh, not cooked or blended like sliced watermelon picked strawberries, cooked like applesauce, in pies, cobblers, or pastries, blended like any fruited milkshake.
Students will work in groups of 2-3 people and each will list his/her favorite fruit and how they like it prepared. It may be drawn out and colored on construction paper.
As a vocabulary strategy I will say each word aloud and have each child write them down, spelling them the best they could, phonetically. After the last word is given we will check our spelling against the dictionary and my list.
The Key Words to define are:
-
1. Succoth
-
2. Tabernacles
-
3. symbolize
-
4. fruit
-
5. booths
-
6. slavery7. wilderness
-
8. harvest
To check for understanding each word will be matched with its proper definition.
After the reading a nature lesson will be given in which the students will make booths or tabernacles similar to the ones used during Succoth. The identification of various fruits and flowers will be a major part of this lesson.
This the Guided Student Reading Sheet. It is to be photocopied and given to each student.
Israel - Succoth/Sukkoth
In late September or early October there comes a festival that Jewish children particularly enjoy. It comes eight days after the Day of Atonement. Succoth, also spelled Sukkoth, is an ancient and happy festival. It is of biblical origin (Leviticus 23:39-43) and is called the Feast of Tabernacles the Feast of Ingathering, or the Feast of Booths. It began as a feast of autumn when the crops were safely gathered in and people were grateful for the harvest. It was also a time of remembering how the forebears of the Jewish people escaped from slavery in Egypt. These booths symbolize the shelters built by Moses on his trip to the Promised Land. They stayed in the wilderness for 40 years and lived in these tents or tabernacles.
Note that thankfulness for the harvest was also a focus of Ghana's Yam Festival.
Today, Jewish families build booths of green branches, decorated with all sorts of freshly grown flowers and fruits, and placed in a garden, on a porch, or on a roof. A table is placed inside the booth and on it is a bowl of fruit in season, a dish containing citron and a sheaf of palm fronds fastened with myrtle and willow twigs. this last from five to nine days and the family meals are eaten in the booth. Friends and relatives are invited in. Note that booths were also used in Mexico's Fiesta but for a different reason.
There are synagogue services and the kibbutzim (collective settlement) celebrates with pageants, entertainment and displays of the community's harvested produce and newest manufactured goods.
At this time of the year many Jews make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
It seems that religion is not a once or twice a week program as is often the case with religious practices here in the United States but it is a major part of their lives. Most of the Jewish holidays we celebrate here are of a religious nature. This is not necessarily true of Christmas, Valentine's Day St. Patrick's Day, Arbor Day, Martin Luther King's Day, New Years' Day, and many others.
Nature Lesson
The Making of a Booth or Tabernacle
Purpose:
-
To build a booth that could be used for the Succoth or Fiesta
-
To identify different flowersTo identify various fruits, not just the common ones.
Materials:
-
Two large, empty, cardboard refrigerator or stove boxes, branches with their leaves(different kinds), a basket of fake or real fruit, books of many fruit and flower identification, paper, pencil, glue, and crayons or markers, string
Procedure:
-
1. Make a flap in both of the cardboard boxes by cutting one side in two places on the fold or crease.
-
2. Cut two large holes on the three remaining sides so that light can come in.
-
3. Leave these to the side for now.
-
4. Start with the flowers, then go to the fruit using a reference book, when needed, to identify each.
-
5. Draw a copy of each item and glue and label it on a sheet of paper.
-
6. When all have been identified, that can be identified start cutting them out off your sheet with the labels and attach them to your boxes. Don't forget to string up branches too!
-
7. Allow two children one day for 9 days to have breakfast in the booth until everyone has had a chance.
If the booth will be used for Mexico's Fiesta then fill it with decorated boxes.
Conclusion:
-
1. Can you identify most of the flowers and fruit without the book or your sheet?
-
2. Was it comfortable to eat in the booth?
-
3. Could the booth be improved? How?
-
4. How often do you think the children of Israel had to fix or adjust the decorations on their booths?
Mexico - The Day of the Holy Kings
To build background I will tell the students that the next holiday we will explore is called The Day of the Holy Kings. It is celebrated in Mexico, a country that borders the United States to the south. This holiday has to do with gifts given to a baby from kings. I will ask the students what kind of gifts would they expect to come from a king. We would compare and contrast the gifts given by a king to those given by a friend who was not rich or of royalty.
King Friend
Gold, silver, money, jewelry, car Toys, jewelry, money, clothes, candy
We would note the differences and discuss why they would exist.
I would have the students brainstorm aloud the different stones they know like gold, silver, onyx, jasper, emerald, ruby, pearl, diamond, jade, etc. I would have them write this list down and save this for later use during the lesson that would follow the reading.
As a vocabulary strategy I would give the reading piece to each child and have them write down every word they could not give me the meaning of. The words on their lists that are not a part of my list they would look up and write the definitions for homework. The vocabulary words that are on my list we will decode with phonetics and define using context clues together.
The Key Words to define are:
-
1. Mexico
-
2. nativity
-
3. frankincense
-
4. carols
-
5. erected
-
6. figurines
-
7. myrrh
-
8. precious
To check for understanding each word must be used in a sentence in a way showing that its meaning is understood.
An Earth Science Lesson will follow the reading . Precious stones and metals will be explored. The list developed when the background for this holiday was given will be used with this lesson.
This is the Guided Student Reading Sheet. It is to be photocopied and given to each student.
Mexico - The Day of the Holy Kings
The Day of the Holy Kings, January 6, has been celebrated in Mexico ever since the Spanish people came to this continent, soon after Columbus discovered it. Traditional American symbols of Christmas, Santa Claus and Christmas Trees are newcomers in Mexico.
The whole Nativity scene is erected in the central location in the home, early in December. Old figurines, as well as new ones, are added to the display. The children make animals out of cardboard to be added the scene. These designed are covered with cotton or yarn depending on the animal being constructed. Common Nativity creatures made are sheep, cows, and donkeys.
The focus and love of the children is the baby Jesus. When they visit the homes of friends and relatives to see their manger scene (nacimientos) all are proud of their figurines.
Christmas comes and goes with celebrations of Posadas and Christmas parties. In Evangelical (Protestant) families there are programs in vacation school, in Sunday school, with special services in church and the singing of carols, plays, pageants, and recitations. Gifts are collected and given to the poor.
The Christmas Eve dinner consists of chicken, turkey, mole (meat with a rich spicy sauce), rice, soup, pasta, and beautiful salads. These are foods the family can afford. The special sweet is the Funelo, a very thin fluffy fried cake.
Festive decorations are kept in place until The Day of the Holy Kings, the Twelfth Night after Christmas. This commemorates the trek of the Wise Men to see the baby Jesus. Gifts are given to the children, just as gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh was given to the infant Jesus.
Chicken and pasta are favorites in Italy as well as Mexico.