Social Studies Lesson on Costa Rica #4

Sara Broughton

Title

: Making Traditional Costa Rican Recipes

Date/Length/Time

: Wednesday March 5, 1997: 9:15-11:20
a.m.

Performance Expectations

: Students will familiarize themselves
with some traditional Costa Rican recipes and will also use math
skills to convert the serving sizes to enough for the entire
class.

Content Area

: Math and Sociology

Strategy

: math skills, reading, and following directions

Materials

: Costa Rican recipes, ingredients to make foods,
cooking utensils: bowls, measuring cups and spoons, mixer, rolling
pin, wax paper

Directions

: This activity will begin by discussing the
different types of foods and recipes of Costa Rica. The students
will be provided with a multicultural cookbook and other reference
materials. After discussing and learning about the different
foods, the students will be divided into five groups. Each group
will be allowed to pick one of five recipes they wish to prepare
for the class. Since the ingredients will have to be ready, the
teacher will have already chosen five recipes and the groups will
draw numbers to see who picks first. All of this will take
place during the first hour. During the second hour the students
will do the necessary preparations for their dish except for the
actual cooking which will requires a stove or an oven. If the
recipe makes five servings, the students need to convert the recipe
so there is enough for each student. One student from each group
will take the mixture home and finish preparing it there. On
Thursday the students will have lunch in the classroom sharing
their Costa Rican dishes.

Adaptation

: At the beginning of the unit a letter will
be sent home to the parents explaining our different activities
and asking for parents’ help and support. You will want to contact
those parents who offered to help and see if they would assist
their child in preparing his or her group’s dish. Hopefully there
will be five different parents who are willing to do this and
then you can assign one of those students to a different group.
If not the teacher may have to cook some of the dishes at home
if he or she wishes to do this activity. For some of the recipes
you may want to have the students convert from four or five servings
to ten or fifteen just so there is enough for the students to
have a taste. However, if they sample the food during their lunch
period you want to make sure there is enough food for a balanced
meal. When picking out different recipes you will also want to
take this into consideration. Before this activity is done you
will need to make sure that each student is able to eat the different
foods that are being prepared, for whatever reasons (allergies,
religion).

Evaluation

: As the students are converting their recipes
the teacher will want to walk around the groups to make sure they
are doing it correctly. By doing this you will be able to see
if the students understand and have the math skills to convert
the recipes. At the end of the unit the students will be doing
a couple of activities which will assess their knowledge of Costa
Rica including traditional foods.

References

: Foran, E. (1992).

Costa Rica is my home

.
Milwaukee: Gareth Stevens

Publishing.

Sawicki, S. (1987).

Costa Rica…in
pictures

. Minneapolis: Lerner

Publications Company.