Expanding Horizons

This is a poster that went up at school last week during the annual "Week of Taste".  Parents were invited to bring in food--in particular regional or international dishes.  This poster is from Anna's class.  It says, "Today, Mexico.  We tasted tortillas and Mexican chips.  We found that it was a little spicy and salty.  Some thought that it was potatoes and meat, which was not the case.  There was cheese, red beans, onions, garlic, tomatoes and cumin."
So, I was the one who brought in burritos and chips and salsa.  I did specify that this was Tex/Mex, but labeling it all as Mexican was probably easier for little French first graders to wrap their minds around.  The kids all had a piece of bean burrito and then the teacher had them guess what was in them as she wrote their responses on the board.  It was extremely entertaining.  Over half of them liked it, which I was impressed with.

After the burrito guesswork, I went around with chips and salsa.  I had warned them that the salsa was a little spicy (although I did tone it down), but they were so afraid to taste it that I had Anna demonstrate the proper piling on of salsa on a chip.  She was happy to do it.
Parents aren't generally as active in French classrooms as they are in American classrooms.  So, it was nice for me to be able to see the class and interact with the kids.  And it was delightful to see how the teacher gathered the kids responses and artwork together to celebrate the experience.