Jalapeno Bagels

Jalapeno Bagels
Author: Natasha Wing
Illustrator: Robert Castilla
Multicultural

Paolo loves to help his parents run the family bakery. It offers a collection of Mexican and Jewish treats which reflect the cultures of his mother and father. When Paolo decides to participate in his school's international festival, he is torn in what treat he will bring to the celebration. Will it be his mother's Mexican pan dulce, empanadas, or his favorite chango bars? Or what about his father's bagels and challah bread? Paolo decides to create a food that celebrates both cultures and takes on the task of making jalapeno bagels, with his parents. The book celebrates diversity and paints the portrait of an American family with a blended culture.

Classroom Application:
This book can be used as an introduction to a unit on celebrating families and diversity through food. To bring the families into the classroom and explore family cultures, students can work as a class to create a digital cookbook. Students will research their family's cultural background and collect recipes from their relatives which represent their country of origin or traditions. Students will then make a movie on the preparation, ingredients and cooking instructions for their recipe using MovieMaker software and Flip Cams. Movies can include pictures, music, videos and the students voice, as long as they provide all the information needed to make the final product. Recipes will be shared through a classroom blog where students can share their treats with classmates, and their families.

The lesson above was inspired a 4th grade classroom cookbook blog:

http://clacookbook.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2010-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2011-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=24