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#1819. Cultures in Texas

Social Studies, level: Elementary
Posted Sat Jun 24 20:53:35 PDT 2000 by Jan Sanchez (rsanche2@elp.rr.com).
Edgemere Elementary, El Paso
Materials Required: 22 different food items, crock pot, 22 bowls and 22 spoons, crackers or french bread
Activity Time: cooks all day, but 30 min.for final lesson
Concepts Taught: Students will understand how all the different cultures in Texas make us a more interesting place.

I have tried many ways to teach my class the importance of different types of people, but this lesson hit them hard. The night before my lesson presentation I cooked some hamburger and beef boullion in my crock pot. Once I was at school I got it started again and brought my class in. It smelled good so I showed them what I had and proceeded to introduce them to the 22 food items I had brought. They included: salt, pepper, bay leaves, garlic powder, oregano, carrots, potatoes, peas, cabbage, green beans, turnips, tofu, rice(already cooked), noodles(raw), celery, mushrooms, brussel sprouts. I tried to get some strange foods that maybe the students hadn't seen before. Then throughout the day during other lessons I would casually invite someone to go put something in our stew. Some just sprinkled salt while others chopped up celery! It couldn't have worked better because almost every time someone put something in the class thought it was smelling better and better. It made it so easy for me during Social Studies time to explain how differences can make something better. We ate the stew and talked about our ancestors, where they were from, what language we spoke, what we do for holidays and everyone felt important.