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LA Taste: Primary Lesson

Title: The Taste of Latin America

Arizona State Standards:

  • Reading: Strand 1-Concept 6 (apply reading strategies) Strand 2-Concept 1 (identify facts and main ideas, author’s purpose) Strand 3-Concepts 1 (analyze non-fiction) Strand 2 – Concept 2 (recognize historical and cultural perspectives)
  • Writing: Creative Writing: Strand 2-Concepts 1,2 & 4, Strand 3-Concept 1 (Grade1) Strand 1-Concept 2, Strand 2 Concepts 1,2, & 4, Strand 3-Concept 1 (Grade 2) Strand 1-Concept2, Strand 2-Concepts 1,2 & 4, Strand 3-Concept 2 (Grade 3) Strand 3-Concept 1. Writing Process: Strand 1- Concepts 1-5, Strand 2-Concept 6 (Grades1-2) Strand 1-Concepts 1 & 3-5, Strand 2 Concepts 1 & 6. Gather & Report Information: Strand 2-Concpet 1-2, Strand 3-Concept 2-3 (Grade 1) Strand 1-Concept 2, Strand 2-Concepts 1-2, Strand 3 Concepts 2-3 (Grade 2) Strand 2-Concepts 1-2 (Grade 3).
  • Listening and Speaking: LS-F1 and LS-F3 (shares, presents, participates in activities)
  • History: 1SS-F2 (knowledge of past & present) 1SS-E1(research tools)
  • Civics and Government: 2SS-F1 (multiculturalism)
  • Geography: 3SS-R1 (concept of location) 3SS-F1 (map skills)
  • Arts: 1AM-R7 (Respect for personal work and work of others) 1AV-R1/F2 (use of art materials) 1AV-R2/E1/3AV-R2 (communicate through art) 1AV-R3 (art symbolism) 1AM-R6/3AV-R4 (art appreciation) 2AV-R2 (art & culture)

Goals & Objectives:

Students will...

  • Ask questions about the food they eat and identify foods from the New and the Old world
  • Explain the meaning of the Columbian exchange and give examples.
  • Write and talk about the history of chocolate and how its meaning has changed overtime.

Length of lesson: Two one-hour periods or one block period

Materials & Preparation:

  • Handouts
  • grocery bags with food products (if possible, include plastic animal figures of domestic animals as well)
  • big sheets of paper for posters
  • chocolate beans or a picture of them
  • hot chocolate
  • cups

Lessons:



First Period:

 

  • Ask your students to make a list of what they ate for breakfast, or would have liked to eat.
  • Make two lists on the board, one titled ‘New world’ and the other one ‘Old World’. What do we call the New World? And the Old World? Which of those worlds does our breakfast come from? Corn Flakes are made from corn, which is a New World product, milk is from cows that are Eurasian, sugar is Southeast Asian and eggs are from chickens, also a European contribution to the Columbian exchange.
  • Under the New World list write the words ‘chocolatl’, ‘tomatl’ and ‘ahuacatl’. Have them guess the meaning of each of these Aztec words, chocolate, tomatoes and avocados. Add potatoes to this list. Before the Columbian exchange, Europeans did not know these products. Can you imagine what they must have thought when they saw a tomato for the first time?
  • In pairs, ask students to fill out a Venn diagram together. Ask them to share which of their favorite foods they could eat in Europe and in the Americas before the Columbian exchange. The common area of the Venn diagram ‘after the Columbian exchange’ will most likely include most of their favorite foods. What are some of their favorite foods? Which of those foods could have existed in Europe before the Columbian exchange? And in the Americas? Pizza could not exist, nobody knew the taste of chocolate or popcorn, or French fries.
  • Divide students in groups and give them a bag full of food products. Have a context where you ask them to classify the items as New or Old world products.

Second Period:

  • Read the poem ‘Charlie’s chocolate choices on handout #3. Discuss with students: What could you tell Charlie about the history of chocolate? If Charlie was a European before the Columbian exchange, would he have used chocolate for his poem? What food could he have chosen instead?
  • Where does chocolate come? If possible, bring some cocoa beans to class. If not, bring a picture of the bean and of the tree for students to see. Tell students that chocolate was so important in the Americas that the Aztecs used the cacao bean as a form of currency. Read with them handout #2. Practice with students the pronunciation of Chocolatl!
  • Students make a poster showing the different uses of chocolate in the American Aztec Civilization and in their lives.

Closure:

  • Students sit with a cup of hot chocolate and share their poems and posters.
  • Students can have a chocolatl toast thanking the Columbian exchange for all the good foods they eat!

Evaluation:

  1. Assess class participation, pair activity and group activity.
  2. Give students feedback on their posters for content, creativity and effort.
  3. Assess students’ presentations for their clarity and interest.

Extensions:

  1. Students can make a list of their Thanksgiving menu and decide which foods come from the Americas, which from the Old world, and which are a product of the Columbian exchange.
  2. Students can make food puppets and have their puppets tell the class about the history of where they come from and how they crossed the ocean.
  3. Talk about the significance of corn for ancient Latin America’s civilizations. Show students pictures of corn goddesses and read them the Mayan myth of the Popol-Vuh about ‘how people were made out of corn’.