"Stomp your feet, clap your hands, everybody ready for a barnyard dance?" This fun line came from the book Barnyard Dance, by Sandra Boynton, which we read and do-si-doed to in Nutrition Expedition this week! The children had a blast swinging their partners round and round, twirling with the piggies, and sliding with the sheep! Be sure to check out the cute video below to see all the dancing we did :)
We put our creative green thumbs on this week in Nutrition Expedition! I constructed miniature cardboard gardens for each classroom by covering a cardboard box with black "dirt" paper, and surrounding it with green "grass". Using construction paper, I made four different vegetable cutouts for the children to decorate for the garden; eggplants, carrots, potatoes, and radishes.
We started our lesson by playing a mystery garden game. I filled the "mystery bag" with felt vegetables, and each child took a turn to pull out a secret vegetable. They had to figure out what it was, and place it in the "garden" (a felt board). Next, we went to the tables, where they chose their vegetable cutout. They had a blast with the googly eyes, as you can see in the photo above, turning their vegetables into GMO mutants! Ha! After they had put the finishing touches on their crafty veggie, we placed them on sticks, and inserted them into slots in the garden. They turned out adorable, almost good enough to eat (well, that is, if you can overlook all the eyes staring back at you)!
Gazpacho, gazpacho, más (more)
gazpacho! We had a muy bueno (very good) time making our own gazpacho this week
in Nutrition Expedition! I started out by reading the bookGazpacho for Nacho, by
Tracey Kyle. It's an adorable multicultural book about a young boy named Nacho
who cannot get enough gazpacho. He begs his mother to make it for every meal,
and refuses to eat anything else. She finally gets fed up, and decides it's
time for Nacho to learn how to make his own gazpacho. Together, they visit the
market and choose the freshest ingredients for their gazpacho (tomates-
tomatoes, pepinos- cucumbers, pimientos- peppers, cebollas- onions, and ajo-
garlic). Nacho learns how to prepare the gazpacho, and in the process, develops
a liking for cooking and imagines all of the delicious things he will make as
"Chef Nacho". The book includes a recipe for gazpacho, as well as a
glossary of the Spanish words used throughout the book. If you are interested
in this book, follow the link below to order it from Amazon:
We then learned that gazpacho is a tomato based "soup" that is chilled, rather than heated. Similar to a salsa, it can be eaten by itself, or with bread, croutons, tortilla chips, etc. We chose to eat ours with flatbread. We discussed the history of gazpacho, and how it originated in Spain, specifically the region known as "Andalucia". It began as a simple recipe centuries ago from field workers who were given a food ration of bread and water. The stale bread was mixed with oil, whatever vegetables were available, and a liquid such as water or vinegar. Over time, and as new foods were discovered and introduced into Spain, including tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers, gazpacho evolved into what we now know it as. To read more about the history of gazpacho, followthis link.
For the 3-and-4-year-olds, they made their own version of gazpacho, which was more like a chunky salsa. They even got their own hair net, just like a real chef! Typically in gazpacho, the tomatoes are blanched, peeled, and de-seeded before being diced, juiced, and added to the gazpacho. We decided to use fresh tomatoes, instead of the canned variety that this recipe calls for. Because I wanted them to have the experience of cutting their own vegetables (with a plastic knife, of course), I gave each of them a whole tomato, as opposed to prepping it first, along with a large chunk of cucumber to dice. They then added orange peppers (the recipe calls for green, but just my luck, Meijer happened to be out of the green variety on the day that I shopped :)) which I had already diced. While they stirred these ingredients around in their bowl, I came around and added a drizzle of olive oil, a pinch of garlic and onion powder, a sprinkle of salt, and a squirt of fresh lime juice. The original recipe called for red wine vinegar, but I replaced it with the lime juice, as this is for children :)!
For the 2's and Toddler's, I blanched the tomatoes (drop them in boiling water for approximately 15 seconds, then transfer to an ice bath for 1 minute), peeled, diced, and removed the seeds prior to bringing them to the classroom. Then, the children helped me add diced cucumbers, peppers, olive oil, a dash of garlic and onion powder, salt, and fresh-squeezed lime juice. I separated it into two parts, and added three-quarters of the mixture to our food processor to give it a runnier consistency. We stirred it all together, and put it in the fridge for a lunch time treat! Yummy! The infants enjoyed listening to the story and investigating a tomato, cucumber, and pictures of gazpacho ingredients. Here is the recipe from Gazpacho for Nacho, if you'd like to try it at home:
