Peanut butter & grape jelly sandwiches (PB & J for short). A Red Delicious apple. Tortilla chips. Graham cracker sandwiches with frosting in the middle. A mini carton of “white” milk (as in, not chocolate milk). This is what I typically found in my lunch box growing up.
What about you? What about your students?
The slide show below, part of the What’s In Your Lunch Box project, is an international language learning project for K-3 students. It looks like the project has photos from Australia, Turkey, and China so far.
Of course, this project assumes that kids eat lunch at school. When I went to school in Germany I, along with every other student, ate lunch at home because school let out before lunchtime. But even though I didn’t bring a lunch box to school, what I ate for lunch was often very different from what I’d eaten in the U.S. (as were the Broetchen I brought to snack on during the Pause each day).
Food is an expression of culture. It’s one of those great tip of the iceberg things that captures peoples’ interest because it’s relevant to everyone. Exploring food from a cross-cultural perspective is a wonderful way to begin learning about culture and developing culture learning skills in the classroom.
The contact information for the teacher coordinating the project is on the project webpage, so check it out if you’d like to share what’s in your (students’) lunch box!
If you’re reading this in you email, you’ll need to click through to see the slide show.
