Not So Usual Celebrations
July 7th is Chocolate Day. WOW! What an opportunity to eat chocolate and not feel a bit guilty. Chocolate is one of America’s favorite flavors. Chocolate in candy, cookies, cakes, drinks, ice cream and cereal—Yum! And of course, what’s not to like about an Oreo. You can eat Oreos plain, dipped in milk, crunched up into a pie crust, chunked into an ice cream treat, and of course, fried. If you have never tried a fried Oreo, you don’t know what you’re missing! You can find many great recipes on line.
Then there are peanut M and Ms. These tasty treats wrap protein rich peanuts in delicious chocolate with a candy shell. If you want them to be healthy, change the name from M and Ms to peanut wraps. However, not sure that you knew this (I certainly didn’t) chocolate is officially a vegetable as it comes from the cacao tree in the Amazon. I think that this may mean that you and I could swap 5 candy bars (provided they are chocolate) for 5 fruits and vegetables each day. Not a bad trade at all.
Chocolate Trading Cards
To share information about chocolate with students, have them create Chocolate Trading Cards. Have the students do some research about chocolate, where it comes from, the many ways it is used, and a collection of other fun facts. Have students work in “research teams”. After each team has collected information on chocolate, have each small group share the information with the class, recording the facts on the board or chart paper. Then have each student create a Trading Card using 3”x5” index cards. On one side the student draws a picture of chocolate and on the back, the student lists the fun facts that intrigue him most. Once the individual cards are made, have the groups brainstorm questions that can be answered from the cards they created. Play a game of Jeopardy with students. You might want to use the items from the group memory chart to create the answers for the game. Of course, if you were to offer “chocolate prizes” it would make the day complete.
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