The dramatic play areas gave children an opportunity to explore different types of foods. Play food was a huge hit as they enjoyed naming the different options and of course pretended to eat it. The children’s ideas grew when teachers added authentic plates and cups to dramatic play which led to the children demonstrating one-to-one correspondence. The children would set the plates on the table and then place one food item on each plate; this naturally led to additional math curricular experiences, however, the teachers wanted to find a way to tie in culture and diversity into an already loved interest. The teachers jumped in by incorporating an exploration of foods from around the world.
Children explored how food is eaten in different cultures and chopsticks were given to the children to eat their lunches. Teachers also modeled their use of chopsticks and gave tips to the children on how best to use the chopsticks. To keep the interest going, teachers added books about culturally diverse foods into the classroom and intentionally read the stories to the children. Teacher and children explored where food comes from and discovered that some food is grown on trees and some food is grown underground. Teachers then took this opportunity to introduce seeds into the classroom curriculum.
Seeds were placed into zip lock bags with wet paper towels and hung on the doors and windows of the classroom. The children made predictions on what they thought might happen to the seeds, and then watched throughout the weeks noting the changes on clipboards with pencils, as well as, documenting the change with photos.
The teachers and children looked at the school menu and studied the different types of foods offered to see different ethnicities and cultures being represented. Each week pictures of the food was used as writing provocations, exploring the recipes the school chef has, and making predictions if they thought the food would taste good or not. Some of the food explored with a closer look from the menu was Tikka chicken, Beef Bulgogi, and Gyros. The teachers took this opportunity to have a meet and greet with the chef & children where they could ask him questions. The toddlers asked him about his hat, his gloves, and pointed to his washcloth where they learned this is what he uses to pick up and move hot dishes in the kitchen. The children also enjoyed being chef helpers as they got to push their food cart all the way to the kitchen after breakfast and lunch.
The teachers plan to incorporate recipes sent in from families to extend this activity, as well as, exploring more about what all a chef can do.
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