A recipe book project

Our Greek Recipe Book cover page

This amazing project, was one of the projects we did in collaboration with our French partners last school year, on etwinning. ( http://desktop.etwinning.net/index.cfm )

The project background

Students research the recipes of typical food dishes in their countries as well as the origin of the ingredients and recipes

Teacher Goals

To promote cultural development/respect among the students
To tie in the Social Studies curriculum
To promote appreciation of the students ethnic backgrounds
To have a cultural celebration

Students Goals

To appreciate their own background
To learn other cultural backgrounds .To learn the historic perspective of their cultures
To develop a Cultural Recipe Book

One of the recipes- handwritten

Class motivation

It was very easy for me to motivate my students for this project. I told them that I would like to have them create a class Cultural Recipe Book in order to be sent to France.At the end of the project our partners would have a greek food celebration or a picnic. Unfortunately, our school closed early and we didn’t have the chance to do the same!

Most of the recipes were handwritten because, we don’t have a computer lab at school!!

Background knowledge

Students used family members at home as primary resources of information.
Students were asked to browse the internet for information.

Preparation

First, I introduced the project. I needed to know if that class ( 6th graders) would be willing to cooperate with me. They were excited and ready to start working.

A parent letter was generated and sent home informing them that their child is participating in this class project. The letter asked for their support with student online help, recipe ingredients etc.

Greek Easter Cookies

I also asked volunteers to create our Recipe Book Cover page and had a competition in class for the best cover! Students, had to vote for their favourite Recipe Book Cover.

Students were responsible for gathering information on their own time.

After they had received their partners’ recipe book some time later, a discussion followed in class about the culturally similarity we share. Although they or their family is from different countries we all have something in common.

On of the candidate Book Covers

How to we tie it into curriculum standards?

This project ties in with the English Language Standards. Students are reading, writing, listening and speaking for information. Understanding, writing , and social interaction are also involved.

This project lends itself into the Social Studies curriculum, geographical and historic aspects, too.

How do we get students interested in the topic?

I think this project is self motivating. When it comes to talking about yourself and where you are from and then combining it with peoples all time favorite-food, it just works! The students are naturally interested and enthused about the project.

The lack of Tech at school , is not a problem at all for my students since, when there is a will , there is a way!

Basic skills before starting the project

The students need to know how to access the internet. (Most of them do know how.)
The students need to know how to write-up a recipe including the ingredients and step-by-step directions.( I have to teach them basic vocabulary and expressions )

How are the students organized

The students work and present information individually. Everyone is equally responsible for collecting and gathering their information. As long as the students participate in this assignment, I accept what they hand in.

The final stage

I asked the students to creatively and attractively create their own recipe page for the book. (I binded all of the pages together once each one had handed in his/her page.) I finally, uploaded all their work on twinspace using http://issuu.com/

Students in both countries, commented and discussed each other’s work. Both me and my partner teacher Carolyn, wanted students to share what they’ve learned about each other’s culture.

Our class “Cultural Recipe Book” is kept on display in our english class bookcase, as well!