Teachers can get creative with a social studies cultural unit lesson plan that is based on different cultural foods of the world. Children can be asked to help plan and set up a cultural feast by bringing in food that is specific to their family’s heritage, background, or nationality. Students can work with their parents to decide what food to make and bring on the day of the cultural feast.
Cultural History Lesson Plan – First Steps
To learn about their heritage, students should be asked to discuss with their parents what food (either a main dish or dessert) that they would like to bring to the feast. Send home a form that will allow parents to be a part of the decision-making process. The form should require the name of the food, the nationality of the item, and a parent signature.
Give the parents an opportunity to buy a pre-made version of the item, if they cannot fit the food preparation into their busy schedules.
Social Studies Cultural Unit – Homework Assignment for Students
Once a nationality and dish has been chosen and teachers have collected the cultural feast sign-up forms, students can then be given a research assignment based on the food. The homework should be in the form of a report and include the following:
- Where the food is from (country)
- A brief history of the food
- When the food might have been eaten (holiday, every day, special occasions)
- The first time the child ever tried the food
- The recipe, including ingredients and method
Cultural Feast Day
Set up a date for the cultural feast. Have the students bring in a sampling of each of the dishes that they were responsible for, so that all students have a chance to taste the different flavors of the main dishes and desserts. Additionally, teachers may also request or do the following:
- Dress in clothing that relates to heritage
- Present cultural reports to the class
- Put together a class cultural cookbook which contains all of the recipes represented at the cultural feast
- Put together pictures, video clips, and comments into a cultural scrapbook
- Invite another class, local newspaper reporter, or school administrators to the feast
- Invite a grandparent or relative of that nationality to the feast
- Locate the country of each culture on a map of the world
- Play cultural music on a tape recorder/CD player
After Cultural Feast – Social Studies Unit Classroom Activities
After the feast, students can be asked to comment kindly on the various items at the feast. These can be verbal or written comments that can be included in the class cultural cookbook, or in a cultural feast scrapbook that illustrates the lesson plan. If video clips were taken of the feast, a great classroom activity would be to watch the video in order to review the important points learned in the lesson.
Teachers may also end this social studies unit with a quiz based on facts the students learned about each country represented at the feast. If a quiz is intended, students should be given fair warning so that they will pay close attention, take notes, and ask questions during the educational social studies cultural unit lesson plan. This cultural history lesson plan will be a fun way to teach students about different cultures through food.
Karen Plumley - Karen Plumley is a writer specializing in parenting and education. She works for Parenting NH and the Hippo, NH's most widely read ...
