A Fun Preschool Geography Activity
Trying Meals from Around the World
A fun way to explore cooking with kids is to connect their food to geography! This topic can be difficult for younger kids so it is nice to find age appropriate ways to expose them to different places. As a part of my Around The World/Maps unit my preschool is going to taste and explore food from a variety of different cultures.
Ideas For: Central and South America
Making Enchiladas!
We made enchiladas for our lunch, and the kids enjoyed helping prepare our tortillas for pre-baking.
They also got to fill them with cheese!
I didn't want them to be too "saucy" for the kids...since the flavor can be pretty strong. So we brushed the sauce on with a pastry brush and then put a bunch of cheese on top!
We topped it off with some mexican rice and beans :) Yumm!
Try Some New Produce
Some fun ideas for South American produce include: Mangos, Papayas, Tomatillos, Potatoes, and Platanos. These all have such different flavors, and my kids really loved trying them :)
Make Alfajores
There is only so much time for baking in a given day at preschool, so I elected to have the kids help make enchiladas...but this traditional Argentine cookie is very easy to make (I ate a TON of them when I lived in Argentina so I learned how to bake them right away when I returned), and the kids would have loved it. I baked them the night before but you could choose to include your kids in this project as well! Yum!
If you don't know about Alfajores, you should look them up. There are a lot of varieties. I stick to the very basic kind that I found in my local bakery when I lived in Rosario, Argentina. They are a light buttery cookie with dulce de leche inside and then coconut shreds around the edges. I make my cookie without any sugar in it, so just the dulce de leche sweetens it!
If you don't know about Alfajores, you should look them up. There are a lot of varieties. I stick to the very basic kind that I found in my local bakery when I lived in Rosario, Argentina. They are a light buttery cookie with dulce de leche inside and then coconut shreds around the edges. I make my cookie without any sugar in it, so just the dulce de leche sweetens it!
Ideas for: Europe
Learn how to make a "toast". We spent some time talking about making toasts, and then each child got to share something. One little boy at my school commented that he wanted to make a toast for trying to food! He said how much he loved it :) We used glass cups for sparkling juice with a raspberry inside, and tried croissants!
Our lunch was in three parts. We made mini caprese salads on toothpicks for part one. I pre-made little cups with mozzarella balls, grape tomatoes, and basil pieces. They got two toothpicks to make their mini salads on. In the end I put in a little oil and vinaigrette in their bowl and they could try dipping them if they wanted.
This is a great activity for fine motor, but also for listening. I modeled the "order" for making the salad: One mozzarella ball, one tomato, one basil, a second mozzarella ball. Then repeat for the second one. This was just a chance to do some listening and following directions in a real-life setting! The kids really focused to make these!
Very proud to have made these all on their own!
For part two of our lunch, we discussed how cheese plates are popular while riding trains through Europe! We enjoyed some cheese plates with two kinds of cheese, crackers, some salami, and pear slices. And last, we enjoyed some ravioli!
Ideas For: Asia
Today my preschoolers and I explored Asia! We found it on our world map, on our globe, and on our the amazing felt map/activity that I discussed in an earlier post :) We got to learn about Animals from Asia, and talk about the types of transportation we may need if we wanted to travel there. It seemed appropriate to try some food from Asia for our snack and lunch! We enjoyed: Pad Thai, Gyoza with soy sauce, a Thai cucumber and carrot salad w/dressing, Asian pears, and Japanese rice crackers from the bulk food section at my local market.
Exploring All Week!
I am excited to try food from other cultures all week long. We will enjoy mexican food on Tuesday, Italian food on Wednesday, and Indian food on Thursday. This will introduce kids to a wide variety of flavors, expose them to new foods, and help them find some excitement in connecting to other cultures. While trying new food all year long is important, connecting to a Map Unit gives us the chance to really see where the meals are coming from as we learn about different places around the world!