Family Foods

Family Foods is a fun activity that invites families of the children in the classroom to share a favorite recipe from their home culture. The parent or friend is invited into the classroom to share the recipe with the class. The teacher buys all the ingredients and has everything ready for when the person comes in. When doing this activity it is important to buy extras so children can explore the raw ingredients. This can be a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly activity. The parent shows the ingredients to the children, and if any are unfamiliar they might explain what it is. The parents can talk about the cultural significance of the recipe and how the food is eaten. They can also discuss how the food came to be an important meal in their family. This is a great activity to set up during free play. Children can come and go as they please. Make sure any children who are coming to the table wash their hands first! Later the dish can be served at lunch or snacktime for all the children to try. Talk about the foods and ingredients used. Asked the children how they normally use these ingredients at home when there family is cooking. What was similar? What was different? Did they like the way the food tasted? What was the texture like? How do it feel to roll the dough, rice, noodles, etc., in their hands. Did they smell all the ingredients. This activity allows children to use their senses and focus on all parts of the food and the recipe.

Later in the day the students can dictate a thank you letter for the parent. Comments about how much they liked the particular food can be included or pictures of the dish that children drew. Be sure to take pictures of the activity and display them in the classroom so everyone can see the fun new dishes the class made!

*Something important to remember when doing this activity is to be sure you don't say "all Chinese people eat sushi." Instead, choose phrases like " Mia's family is Chinese and they enjoy eating sushi." Make sure when you explain the activity you are not being stereotypical or making generalizations about a certain culture.

The themes for this activity are Families and My People

Materials: Materials will vary for each meal. It will depend on the recipe and utensils needed.

Objectives of this activity (as listed on page 197 of Roots and Wings):

Recognize and celebrate one's own diet and style of eating.

Identify with one's own culture.

Share one's own culture with others.

This activity meets anti-bias goals 1&2 in the book Roots and Wings.

It meets goal 1#: Develop a positive, knowledgeable, and confident self-identity within a cultural context by:

• Recognizing one's own diet and style of eating.
• Recognizing one's own family
• Identifying one's own culture, cultural traditions, and customs

It meets goal #2: Demonstrate comfortable, empathetic interaction with diversity among people because it encourages children too:

• Explore the cultures of other children in the classroom
• Recognize that our community is made up of many different types of people
• Explore similarities and differences in positive ways. (The book Everybody Cooks Rice by Norah Dooley is a good book for this activity)

Teaches children different ways families use rice.

1. Why did you choose this particular activity?  

I chose this activity because I think food gathers us around and breaks down walls. Food brings us together for holidays and get togethers. What we eat defines our family and our culture. There is so many different things to eat and each family eats different things based on their own culture and lifestyles. This activity also helps bring others into the classroom to talk to the students and teach them more. Children enjoy cooking and making different things. While they don't always enjoy trying new foods, many times they are more likely to try it when they have made it themselves.

2. What is the appropriate age for this activity?

This activity is appropriate for children as young as 2 or 3, depending on the complexity of the meal and the family story behind the meal. It is great for older children who are able to help out with the meal and read the recipe and help make it. According to Roots and Wings on page 188, "Appropriate multicultural activities for young children focus on things children are interested in" (S. York, p. 188).

Preschool children want to know about others and themselves. They are naturally curious about the world. (York, p. 17).

"Fives and sixes will enjoy exploring the cultural heritages of their classmates" (York, p. 18).

By the age of seven children are starting to fully realize that their culture comes from their family, and they add the concept of group membership to their own identity and use it to distinguish themselves according to the textbook Roots and Wings on page 19 (S. York).

3. Explain why this is an appropriate theme.

This is an appropriate theme, because it meets the following goals:  

Encourages children to respect other cultures. Children are able to see what others eat and can help prepare it and enjoy it.

Provide children with a positive experience exploring similarities and differences. By making this meal in the classroom with friends and in a positive experience, they can explore different ways noodles, rice, beans, and other common foods are used to create something different.

Teaches children about their own culture. The child's whose own culture is being discussed, might even learn something new from their parents in this activity.

Introduces children to other cultures by having adults come in to cook a favorite meal from their home culture. In this activity children are able to meet people of different cultures and learn about some of their favorite foods and how they prepare items.

4. Relate your activity to three concepts from the handout Goals for Anti-Bias Curriculum.

This activity goes along with goal #1: "Culturally relevant activities strengthen children's connections to their family and home culture" (York, p. 191). Children may not remember everything they learned, but they will get the feeling that this is important and and special (York, pg. 189). When they see the teacher's interest and respect it increases their interests as well (p. 189).

Some other goals it meets includes the following:

• People are different. Each culture has different foods that they eat and different ways of preparing foods. They might use a wok or a frying pan. Some cultures might eat bread while others eat pita. Each family is different.
• It is important to try new experiences. Trying new foods is a great experience for young children. They are able to taste, smell, and feel things they might not have had experience with before.
• Families live in different ways (the different foods we eat is one great example of this)
• Culture comes from parents and family. By having the families come in to make the meal, the child can take pride in their family and the food they eat. If a grandparent comes in to make the meal, it shows how the meal is passed on to each generation and can be enjoyed by all of them together.
• Encourage children to respect other cultures. If a child does not enjoy the meal or just thinks it looks or smells funny, the teacher and other classmates can help the child find a polite way to say no thank you.

To expand on this activity, the classroom can create a book of the meals they made during the school year. Include fun pictures and have each child make a page or two. They can write about how many types of bread they tried or how many ways they used eggs. Children can talk about the way it felt to roll dough in between their hands, or the sounds of vegetables cooking in a wok. They might describe the way it smelled when curry, garlic, or onions was cooking.

There are many books available at your local library that talk about food and different food eaten in different cultures. The books I chose could be read by a teacher before a parent comes into to the classroom to make their meal. The parent could also read the book before making the meal and use it to help them prepare it. A recipe book with pictures could be used with young children to have them help choose what step is next. Older children can read the recipe and if enough supervision is available, younger children and older children help with the measurements and cutting ingredients up.

A young boy uses the dough from his mother's

chapatis (an Indian bread) to create animals. Ages 3-6

A photographer looks at a week's worth of food

for families in different countries.

There are seven different books by Amy Sanger on different cultural foods and their preparation. Books about food can be placed in the kitchen play area of the classroom to allow children to "create" their own meals during free time play.

Some favorite Chinese meals and how to prepare them.

Laura Thompson

Resources: 

York, S. (2003). Roots & wings: affirming culture in early childhood programs ( ed.). St. Paul, Minn.: Redleaf Press 

http://www.incultureparent.com/2012/03/a-multicultural-feast-7-fun-childrens-books-on-food/

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/418843.Yum_Yum_Dim_Sum

Book images from: http://www.amazon.com

Joseph Had a Little Overcoat

Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback. Illustrated by Simms Taback. Originally published in 1976 and then again in 1999 when Taback decided it could be better and he redid the book (Schwager, 1999).

     Joseph Had a Little Overcoat is a book about Joseph who had a coat. When this coat got old and worn he decided to make a jacket out of it, when this was old and worn he made a vest out and it and danced at his nephew's wedding. The book continues as each item gets old and worn until the jacket is now down to a button. He loses the button and then he has nothing left. He decides to make a book out of it. The story ends saying "Which shows you can always make something out of nothing."

• Are characters "outside the mainstream culture" depicted as individuals or as caricatures? The characters in this book are all Polish Jews who look similar to Joseph. We know it is in Poland because there is a letter on the floor in Joseph's room that was sent to him and the address is Yehupetz, Poland. There is no outside group in the book.

• Does their representation include significant specific cultural information? Or does it follow stereotypes? The book depicts Polish Jews. The clothing worn by many of the characters, could be stereotypical, as it is what you might expect Polish people to wear during that time period. The Jewish men have the traditional braids and yarmulkes. I think it could be portraying the stereotype that Jewish people are cheap, as he continues to reuse items over and over, and even when nothing is left he makes a book out of it. All of the clothes he owns have patches in them as well.

• What are the consequences of certain behaviors? What behaviors or traits are rewarded, and how? What behaviors are punished, and how? Joseph continues to make something new out of his coat when it is worn out. No matter what it looks like, instead of throwing it away, he makes something new. Even when it is gone he makes a book out of it.

• How is language used to create images of people of a particular group? How are artistic elements used to create those images? This book has wonderful artwork. It uses collages, watercolor, Gouache, pencil, and ink. Some of the men in the book are wearing a yarmulka (traditional Jewish cap), and in Joseph's house there is a menorah (a Jewish candlestick holder commonly used for Hanukkah) and a dreidel ( a jewish toy). On the ground there are newspapers with Yiddish writing on them. It is interesting because in Joseph's house the pictures on the wall are of real people and when he goes to visit his sister who lives in the city, the people in the apartments are all real people as well, but the characters in the book are cartoon people.

• Who has written this story? Who has illustrated it? Are they inside or outside the groups they are presenting? What are they in a position to know? What do they claim to know? The book was written and illustrated by Simms Taback. The characters in the book are Polish, according to an interview with Taback done by creativeparents.com. Simms is Polish and grew up in a neighborhood in the Bronx and Yiddish was his first language. Simm's parents were working class Jews. In the interview Taback says this book describes his childhood. He is inside the group he is presenting.

• What do this narrative and these pictures say about race? Class? Culture? Gender? Age? Resistance to the status quo? The pictures and the narrator show the people having fun, they go to the fair, they dance at weddings, they visit each other, and sing in the choir together it also shows them working in the field and in the yard, and working on making something new out of the old coat. It was interesting in the men's choir there was even little boys that were singing so they value all ages. There are also a lot of animals in the book, it seems most of the people owned some kind of farm animals. One lady has a goose walking around with her and a basket of eggs, another man is carrying a chicken. I think it shows a lot of positive things, but many things could be considered a stereotype.

• Analyze the illustrations for stereotypes.  What are people doing that may create or perpetuate a stereotype? The men wear yarmulkes and tall hats and all have beards or mustaches. The women wear scarves on their heads and wear bright colorful patterns. Many of the clothes are patched and worn out. The men have braids and scarves which some children may find funny. The people do all look similar. They have long noses that are red on the end, pink cheeks, their eyes all look similar, and the teeth are all the exact same. According to point 4 in Evaluating Children's Literature by Bliss, this would be stereotyping the characters.

• Analyze the storyline.  How are problems presented and resolved? I think this book has a wonderful storyline. When the coat is too worn out to wear, instead of throwing it away, Joseph makes a jacket out of it. I think this is great because we live in a world today where a lot of the kids I take care of and my nieces and nephews will say "let's go to the store and buy a new one" if I say something is broken. When there is a problem, Joseph fixes it by making something new.
• Would you recommend this book?  Why or why not? I would recommend this book. It is well-written and has simple phrases that are easy to read to children and could easily be memorized by children. I think it has wonderful illustrations and a good moral in a world where children want to throw things away because they can go to the store and buy a new one. I would be cautious if you have Jewish children in the classroom because it portrays the little boys with long braids and they could be seen as poor as the people all live in apartments, or a little house as Joseph lives in, which has very little possessions in it. This relates to number 9 in Evaluating Children's Literature. Children of this cultural background might be embarrassed if this was read in their classroom. I had a hard time finding anything negative about this book. The reviews were positive and websites like pbskids.org and scholastic.com had lots of activities and suggestions for using it in the classroom. Overall I think it is a wonderful book. Since it was written by a man who was Polish and spoke Yiddish. He was writing about one of his favorite songs as a child. It would be fun to learn this song in the classroom and you could make a few activities out of it. Like giving the children a brown paper bag or some fabric and having them make something that they want to make. It would be fun to see all the things they come up with, using the same materials.

                                            

Laura Thompson

References: Bliss, K. Evaluating children's literature.

Dr. Schwager, I. (1999). Interview with the Year 2000 Caldecott Gold Medal Winner. Retrieved from  

http://www.creativeparents.com/simmsinterv.html

Taback, S. (1999). Joseph had a little overcoat. New York, New York: Penguin Group.

Images from pbskids.org