Chocolate as a lesson tool!

[RillaBlythe]

Is this standard? According to DD & corroborated by another DC, today they sorted smarties out according to colour then got to eat them. It wasn't anyone's birthday. I feel like a po-faced puritan but I don't expect her to eat chocolate as part of her school day. Aren't there other small colourful objects they can sort?!

Food is fantastic for teaching/learning

Absolutely, Mrz.

I use skittles/smarties//jelly tots to illustrate bioaccumulation of DDT through a food chain/web. It's particularly memorable, as one lucky soul gets to eat ALL the sweets at the end. The students remember it though!

I really don't envy primary school teachers. Recent threads lead me to believe that EVERYTHING they do is questioned. It's a wonder they have any time for assessment/target setting/marking/planning when they have to deal with an endless stream of parents questioning whether they should be teaching that Jesus came back to life after three days, or whether DC shold have been kept in at break for spitting at his TA etc.

I've got marshmallows and spaghetti this week to build the tallest structure and froot loop cereal and strawberry laces for pattern

Thank you all lovely teachers for making lessons so fun and tasty. DS (5) would love to be in your class.

DS has a fantastic teacher, by the way, I just thought I'd thank the whole professional group for their creativity and efforts to make learning fun and palatable :-)

Love that post, Radical. It beautifully sums up what is so hard about primary school teaching. The constant requirement to justify yourself.

I think teachers are great too & I like DD's school. She is happy & very proud today of her "robot arm". But I suppose what ultimately prompted this post is that it is strange for me as a new reception parent to be so clueless about what happens during her day. The children line up in the playground for drop off/pick up so there is no chance to talk to the teacher, see the classroom - just get a feel for what my 4y 3m old is doing 6 hours a day. It's an adjustment! That's not po-faced puritan of me, is it?

My Y4 class have 'chocolate' as their topic for most of this term - it wasn't even me who chose it - my school uses the IPC (International Primary Curriculum)!

Dd dd the chocolate theme 2 years ago, it was fantastic

But surely "People Who help us" can include "the lady in the sweet shop" and the "nice man who sends out the parcels at Hotel Chocolat".....

As someone who trained and worked in dog behaviour for many years - I say 'If it works....Use it'. Same applies to children, it is all the same learning theory.

I potty trained dd with chocolate buttons, took 48 hours!

Thank goodness for our creative teachers.

Mrsz DD would 'freak' if she had marshmallows in her class, although you may end up with a bungalow as opposed to a skyscraper!

Chocolate is such a great topic, they watched Charlie and the Chocolate factory

For maths they costed up making chocolate bars and how much they'd need to sell them for

English was making the packaging and adverts

Geography was where chocolate comes from

Home economics was making chocolate bars and assorted goodies

History was about slave trade

Community cohesion was us all turning up to eat it!

Pure brilliance

My best friend got her dream teaching job at a lovely prep school recently. She had to give a lesson to the Year 2 class during her interview day.
She used marshmallows and raw spaghetti to build 3D Objects.
The children loved it.
They ate the marshmallows at the end of it.

She got the job

Brilliant way of teaching IMO

I had to re-write the topics for our school curriculum recently, and just by chance the Chocolate topic ended up in Year 5/6 ( where I just happen to teach!) Funny That!!

Euphemia,

Just if you do it, get big marshmallows, not the mini sort (painful lesson fail No 1!). Jelly babies are better as they have more solidity...

My DD school did this - triggered off milk allergy and reflux. Made her sick for ages and she had to go back on anti reflux drugs to settle things down. Its fun unless you get excluded or it makes you sick.

Jelly babies are better as they have more solidity... but the spaghetti snaps if you aren't careful.
If the school is aware of intolerance or allergy it's a simple matter to provide an alternative for most things.

I've used kebab skewers to make tall structures

You can make a jelly baby scream.

It needs to be strongly heated with potassium chlorate. The reaction oxidises the sugar, and causes a screaming noise.

It should be done in a fume cupboard to prevent injuries if the reaction becomes too exciting.