Food Culture & Family Traditions

Investigation Description:
Show students some rice, either in your hand or in a clear bowl, so they can see it. If possible, show them a few different kinds of rice (white, brown, jasmine, basmati, and/or wild). Tell students that rice comes from a plant. You can show students a picture of a rice plant and explain that rice is the seed of a rice plant and that seeds can be used for both planting and eating. Ask if they can think of other seeds that we eat.

Show students examples of seeds, including beans, peas, corn, wheat, rice, peanuts and tree nuts, sunflower seeds, or pumpkin seeds. Explain that many of the seeds we eat are also eaten all over the world.

Ask students to share any examples in their house of edible seeds. You can invite them to do a quick scavenger hunt, or ask parents to give kids an example ahead of time. Ask student volunteers to show and name the seeds they found.

Alternately, students can share any dishes or memories they have of eating one or more of these edible seeds shared by you or their peers.

Time: 10 minutes

Teacher Materials: Examples of rice and other edible seeds, optional image of rice plants growing to screenshare

Student Materials: Edible seeds (optional)

This virtual investigation is adapted from: PK – Family Food Traditions

Investigation Description:
Ask students to share if their family eats rice, and how they prepare it. Examples might be rice with beans, in soup, with greens, fried with veggies and eggs, as pudding, or with chicken.

Ask students to draw a picture of their family eating rice.

Time: 10-15 minutes

Teacher Materials: Example drawing of family eating favorite rice dish

Student Materials: Paper and writing/drawing utensils

This virtual investigation is adapted from: PK – Family Food Traditions

Investigation Description:
Ask if anyone has heard the word “culture” before? What does it mean? How about “tradition?”

Next, review the vocabulary:

–Culture: language, customs, beliefs, clothing, and activities of a group of people

–Tradition: a way of thinking, behaving, or doing something that has been used by the people in a particular group, family, society, etc. for a long time

–Cuisine: a style of cooking or special type of food

Explain that food is an important part of culture and identity around the world. It is often something that people are proud of, and want to share with others. If appropriate, share an anecdote from your own life about a food that is an important part of your family tradition or a food you tasted for the first time on a trip.

For example, Rice is a very common ingredient in many cuisines around the world. You might ask students to pantomime eating their favorite rice dish and/or ask students to share examples of ways they have eaten rice before (fried rice, rice and beans, chili, etc).

Time: 10 minutes

Teacher Materials: None

Student Materials: None

This virtual investigation is adapted from: 2nd Grade – Exploring Food Traditions

Investigation Description:
Ask for student volunteers to find a produce item in their kitchen, but to keep it hidden from the rest of the class.

One at a time, students will then describe the item to the class, making sure to talk about how it looks, feels, sounds and smells without saying the name of the item.

As the students listen, they can draw a picture of what the student is describing and then take turns guessing what the item is.

Time: 10 minutes

Teacher Materials: Some fresh produce items to model this exercise for students

Student Materials: A fruit or vegetable (optional), and a piece of paper and writing/drawing utensils

This virtual investigation is adapted from: 4th Grade – A Recipe of Me

Investigation Description:
Have students brainstorm a list of adjectives that describe them or characteristics they associate with themselves, and then put them into recipe format.

The adjectives/characteristics will be the ingredients of the recipe and then they can get creative with the methods part of the recipe. Give several examples or helpful ideas as they work on putting their recipe together and remind them of words to use like mix, grind, whisk, stir, bake.

Have students that are comfortable sharing, share their recipe with the rest of the class. Remember this is very personal activity and not all students will be comfortable sharing.

You can have the students start by writing a shorter recipe (three descriptive sentences that describe them) OR they can write a longer recipe with more details if they are comfortable doing that. This will differ from class to class.

Time: 20-30 minutes

Teacher Materials: A “Recipe of Me” that you wrote to use as an example

Student Materials: A piece of paper and a writing utensil

This virtual investigation is adapted from: 4th Grade – A Recipe of Me