Making a chocolate magazine issue Language Arts individual Brainstorm with students a title for your class’s magazine issue. This magazine will be published by your class, and, if successful, made available to the entire school. Special copies will be given to students’ parents. Explain the roles of the editorial board, ad director, art director, etc. Ask that students volunteer and commit to their roles to the magazine issue. Ideally, each and every student should find a function s/he is comfortable in. As the unit unfolds, ask students to think about the magazine and how each activity could be included in the magazine. Schedule time during this unit for magazine work. Give students much freedom to put this issue together, yet remain attentive to the harmonious workings of such an endeavor. Going on a chocolate quest for information Language Arts pair Pair students and give each pair a worksheet. Go over directions for an Internet search as well as the questions students must answer. Send students to the computer lab to complete the assignment or assign the search as homework. Collect students’ work, evaluate and share search results with the classroom. Reward the most accurate and complete quests with chocolate bars! Understanding the nutrition facts label of a chocolate bar Arts/PE/Music class Ask students to bring a wrapped chocolate bar each or provide students with different kinds of individually wrapped chocolate bars. Ask students to examine the wrapping paper for their chocolate bars and to discuss with their neighbors what information they can find. Are there differences, similarities? Ask students to look more closely at the nutrition facts as well as the ingredients. What information is provided? What does the order in which the ingredients are listed indicate? How much sugar is contained in an average chocolate bar? How much is the daily recommendation for sugar consumption? You might want to compare chocolate bar labels with other sweet treats to see how much sugar they contain, and/or what the ingredients are. Making a bar graph with the nutritional value of chocolaty foods Math, Arts/PE/Music individual Gather or ask students to bring a wide selection of foods made with or from chocolate (candy bars, candy, cookies, cake mixes, cold drinks, hot mixes, etc.). Give one item per student as well as a stack of Post-its. Ask them to collect information about the nutritional value of their chocolate item from the nutrition facts, and write each value on an individual Post-it. Make as many columns on the board or poster paper that there are rows on a label (e.g. calories, total fat, saturated fat, etc.). Ask students to stick their respective Post-its below each other under the appropriate columns, creating a bar graph. When all Post-its are in their respective columns, ask one or several volunteer students to come and sum the post-its. Are there wide discrepancies, and what can be inferred from them? Discuss the nutritional values in relationship to the daily values recommended by nutritionists for a healthy lifestyle. Conclude the activity with awareness rising about over-consumption of sugary foods. Make sure this comparative chart appears in the class magazine. Searching and reporting information about chocolate (jigsaw activity) Language Arts. Social Studies small group Have students form groups of 3 to 6, depending on class size. Assign each group a name related to the chocolate unit, such as los dulces, los amargos, las espumas, las masas, los metates, los pasteles, las bebidas, etc. Assign each named group a topic about cocoa/chocolate to research. Give students a half hour to research and take notes about their topic in the class/computer lab. Reconvene students in their named groups. Ask students to exchange and agree on the information they gathered. Ask that they each take notes. They are the experts on their topics. This should take about ten minutes. Then ask that all expert groups split to form new groups in which there is an expert from each named group. In other words, if there were six named groups, there should be six students from different named groups in each new group. In these new groups, ask that each student partake with the information they gathered in their named groups. All students must take notes. Once all students in the new groups have shared their expert information and taken notes, assign as homework that students write up all the information they now possess about chocolate/cocoa.   Collect, evaluate, and place in students’ folders. Mapping the origins of chocolate Social Studies individual Print out the Map of Central and South America and give one to each student. Send them to the library or the computer lab and ask them to search the web or encyclopedias for the origins of chocolate. On their maps, students will identify in one color where cocoa was grown and harvested. In different colors, they will identify where cocoa was drank and traded until the arrival of the Spaniards. They will identify the colors with a legend to their maps. Collect the maps, evaluate them and place them into the students’ folders. One well-labeled map would be a good addition to the class magazine. Plotting the spread of chocolate through the world  Social Studies individual Print out the Map of the world and give one to each student. Send them to the library or the computer lab and ask them to search the web or encyclopedias for the origins of chocolate. On their maps, students will identify in different colors the places and times of the advances of chocolate throughout the world from the time the Spaniards brought it back from the “new world” to the present time. Students will identify the colors with a legend to their maps. Collect the maps, evaluate them and place them into the students’ folders. One well-labeled map would be a good addition to the class magazine. Drawing the life cycle of a cocoa tree Science, Arts/PE/Music individual In class, go over the life cycle of a cocoa tree (on the board or poster board). You may want to contrast it with the life cycle of other trees. In class or as a home assignment, ask students to draw the life cycle of a cocoa tree, and decorate it. Students might make a 2- or 3-dimension life cycle, using paper, felt, or any craft material to make leaves, trunk, blossoms, cocoa beans etc. Take digital pictures of student art and place on the school website as well as in students’ individual folders. The editorial board of the magazine may choose to publish a few of these pictures. Counting cocoa beans in a pod Math individual, class Print out several clear pictures of cocoa pods if you cannot find real pods, and hand them out to students. Ask students to estimate how many seeds there might be in a pod. Write students’ estimates on the board. Ask students to count the seeds from their 2- or 3-dimension pods and to give you the number they reach. Compare their estimations with the result of their counting. Making the Maya and Aztec chocolate drink Arts/PE/Music, Language Arts class Go to the Chicago Field Museum site or any other that gives a fairly complete list of ingredients of early chocolate. Obtain the ingredients as well as a molinillo. In the school kitchen, ask students to help you with the recipe. Ask each in turn to try whipping the cocoa mixture with a molinillo. Serve into small cups and taste. Add honey, vanilla, or other sweeteners to make it palatable and enjoy a Maya experience with your students! Making Mexican chocolate Arts/PE/Music class Making chocolate is an art in Mexico and a special wooden tool is required. A picture of the tool has been provided. It is called un molinillo. This tool can be obtained at your local Mexican store or on the Internet. At your local Mexican store or on the Internet, purchase Mexican or Hispanic chocolate. The chocolate used is usually known as Chocolate de la abuela or chocolate de tabla.  In the school kitchen, heat the milk. When the milk is hot, and before ebullition, add the chocolate in pieces. Let it melt while stirring. Using the molinillo, froth the chocolate milk mixture by rubbing the tool’s handle between the palms of your hand, creating a high speed rotation. This action is called batir el chocolate. Pour into individual cups and let students enjoy their Mexican chocolate. Searching for little known facts about chocolate Social Studies, Math individual Assign this activity as homework. Ask that students find at least one little known fact about chocolate/cocoa. In class, ask that each student in turn say his/her little known fact. Write them on the board, poster paper or transparency. Tally how many times each little known fact has been repeated. Reward with chocolates the students who have been the only ones to find a particular little known fact. End the activity by asking that students transform the tallies into percentages for each little known fact, e.g. this little known fact was mentioned 4 times, or by 10% of the students. Writing a research paper about the conditions for cocoa to grow Language Arts, Social Studies individual Send students to different websites and encyclopedias to research the best growing conditions for cocoa. Emphasize that students are not to copy verbatim the research, but summarize it in their own words. Creating a chocolate recipe Language Arts individual Give students several examples of recipe writing. Go over the different sections as well as the style that make recipe writing. Ask that students individually or collaboratively write an original recipe having chocolate or cocoa as an ingredient. Unusual combinations of ingredients may be used. Assign the completion of the assignment as homework, collect and evaluate. Compile the recipes into the class recipe book, and ask that students try to make at least one recipe, either theirs or someone else’s. If your school has a kitchen, you may ask the staff to make one or several recipes, and have a chocolate recipe tasting. Have students vote on the best tasting/unusual/fantasy recipes Writing creatively about chocolate Language Arts individual Give students several examples of recipe writing. Go over the different sections as well as the particular style of recipe writing. Ask that students write about the history of chocolate, or the enslavement of indigenous people on cocoa plantations, or any other related topic, recipe-style. For example, a recipe for a chocolate division of labor bar Ingredients: 1 large Maya empire a fistful of cocoa seeds 1 liter of bitter cocoa drink Recipe steps: Take a large Maya empire, and separate the elite from the lower cast. Squeeze two tablespoons of juice out of the labor of lower cast Mayas. Etc. Collect all the recipes, evaluate them according to a rubric, and publish them into the class’s chocolate magazine and/or the school’s newspaper. Place recipes into students’ folders, as well as on the school’s website. Making a chocolate ad Arts/PE/Music small group Explain to students that they are to create a chocolate magazine ad. These ads will be placed into the class’s chocolate magazine. If available, show students magazine ads for chocolate products and deconstruct them, paying attention to the magazine audience (age, gender, interest), the placement and size of the ad (cover, middle, end, full page, etc.), characteristics of the product emphasized and omitted, composition of the ad, slogan, etc. Have students form small groups. It is also possible for students to work alone. Give each student or group of students an ad budget. They must justify the cost of all steps of the ad production, and be within budget when they turn their ad into the chocolate magazine contest. The magazine editorial board will decide which ad(s) are the best, and publish them in the magazine. Making a chocolate song Language Arts individual Make sure that all students are familiar with the chicken dance song. Play it, or sing it and encourage students to dance it with you. Ask that students create a chocolate song on the chicken dance tune. The song can be about the growing/harvesting of cocoa, to the eating of chocolate. It needs to be catchy, fun and easy to pronounce. Students may work individually or in pairs. If a class session was not enough, assign the song as homework. The next day, students will perform their songs, individually or in pairs. If students are enthusiastic, you might want to schedule a performance in front of the entire student body. Making a chocolate song in Spanish Language Arts individual Once students are familiar with the unit vocabulary, suggest that they make a song about chocolate in Spanish. See an example. The vocabulary and syntax are to be simple, yet creative. It is to be sung on the chicken dance tune. Have volunteers perform it in class and/or in front of the entire student body. Making a chocolate-scented candle Arts/PE/Music individual Purchase or ask students to bring glass tumblers to class. Melt wax, scent it with chocolate-scented oils, pour it in each tumbler, and let solidify. Give one tumbler to each student as well as glass paint and color pens. Ask students to decorate their tumblers with drawings of molinillos, cacao trees, cacao pods or anything related to the making of chocolate. The best decorated tumblers win chocolate bars Making a chocolate potpourri for Mother’s Day Arts/PE/Music individual Either purchase unscented plant materials and wood chips or have student gather these materials and dry them. (see http://www.aromaweb.com/recipes/potpourri.asp for one way to dry flowers and other natural potpourri materials). Buy chocolate-scented oil, fixing oils and make a chocolate potpourri blend (see many great recipes on the web). Purchase or ask students to bring small glass bowls to class. Have students mix their assortment of dried plant and wood materials into their bowls. Drop a few chocolate-scented blend drops in each chocolate bowl. These make great Mother’s Day gifts! Illustrating the making of Spanish chocolate Arts/PE/Music class, individual Give students the recipe for hot chocolate. Go over the instructions with them, helping them understand the Spanish through drawings, miming and other visual, auditory and kinesthetic techniques. When students seem to have understood the recipe, ask them to illustrate the recipe, drawing the different steps for making chocolate. Take digital pictures of student art and place on the school website as well as in students’ individual folders. Invite students to make chocolate at home according to their illustrated recipe. Illustrating the transformation of chocolate from seed to mouth Arts/PE/Music individual Once students are familiar with the history and the processing of cocoa to make chocolate, give students poster boards, as well as drawing and craft materials. Ask that students illustrate, not necessarily linearly, the processing of chocolate from the cocoa seed on its tree to the finished consumable sweet product we know. Students may work individually or in small groups. Take pictures of students'  artwork and place on the class website. Have students vote on the best illustration for inclusion into the class magazine. Exhibit students’ artwork during the chocolate party. Learning to chart and graph cocoa beans statistics (jigsaw activity) Math small group Download the Annualreport for 2001/02 (or any other current report) of the ICCO at http://www.icco.org/anrep.htm. Acrobat Reader is necessary. Print the World production of cocoa beans table, the World grindings of cocoa beans table, and the Daily price table. Have students form groups of 2 to 4, depending on class size. These will be the expert groups. Name three groups of students the daily price teams. These students will work with the daily price table. Give the three expert groups a copy of the Daily price table and tell students that each expert group will learn to create one type of graph with the Daily price table. Assign the first expert group the responsibility to turn the Daily price table into a pie chart; the second expert group will turn the Daily price table into a bar graph; the third expert group will make the Daily price table into a line graph. Students are to collaborate in their expert groups to figure out how to create their graphs. Once each expert group has successfully completed their graph, ask that a member of each graph type form new groups of three students. These new groups will therefore be composed of one Daily price expert for pie charts, one Daily price expert for line graphs, and one Daily price expert for bar graphs. Ask that in their new groups students explain to each other how they created their respective graphs and how to read them. Ask that students take notes. Assign the two other tables to three other teams of 3 students, and have them learn to make the three types of graphs in the manner explained above. Once all students have successfully created one type of graph and discussed how to make the other two types of graphs, hand out one copy of the two other tables to each student. In other word, if a student has been working with the Daily price table, give her a copy of the World production of cocoa beans and the World grindings of cocoa beans tables. Assign as homework the creation of the three types of charts for the two new tables, to be collected, evaluated, reviewed and placed into students’ folders. Calculating profit on cocoa Math individual, class Ask students to research how much cocoa is sold on the international market (see resources). Ask students to find out how much cocoa powder is sold for in their local supermarket. Have students calculate the difference. Brainstorm with students where the difference in cost comes from (middle man, taxes, transport, etc.). Have students research and extrapolate through the provided websites the cost and profit at each step of the chocolate industry, from international market sale to supermarket shelving. Calculating with chocolate powder Math small group Purchase a box of chocolate powder. Give students the net weight of chocolate powder in the box, as well as the company instructions to make a cup of chocolate. In small groups, ask students to find out how many cups of chocolate they can make out of the box. Give students the price of the chocolate powder box. Ask students to find out how much a cup of chocolate costs. Multiplying with cocoa Math individual There are 7 trees in a cocoa plantation. Each tree produces 3 tons of ground cocoa. How many tons of ground cocoa does this plantation produce a year? There are 24 trees in a cocoa plantation. 6 trees produce 2 tons of ground cocoa a year, 7 trees produce 0.5 tons of ground cocoa a year, 8 trees produce 4 tons of ground cocoa a year, and 3 trees produce 4 tons of ground cocoa a year. How many tons of ground cocoa does this plantation produce a year? Etc. Playing Hidden Words with chocolate-related Spanish vocabulary Language Arts individual Print out the Word puzzle and hand it out to students. Go over the list of words to be found, checking student comprehension by asking them to act the words out, paraphrase them in Spanish or to draw them out. Instruct students to find all the chocolate-related words on the sheet. Once all the words are found, students will have to circle the remaining letters in order to answer the chocolate-related clue in Spanish. Finding out the pronunciation of chocolate in many world languages Language Arts class, individual Brainstorm with students all the languages that surround them and to which they have access. These can be people they know and do/could interact with, or online language dictionaries, language learning software/cassette tapes, etc. Make a list of the identified languages and ask each student to pick two or three languages from that list. Ask that each student learn to pronounce the equivalent of chocolate in each of their three choice languages. It will be their responsibility to pronounce them well in front of the class during the next class meeting. Having a chocolate party Art/PE/Music individual Send a letter home explaining to parents that you are planning a chocolate party and that each child is to make a dish using chocolate. These dishes might be a special family recipe, a student creation or downloaded from the Internet, but it is important that the child herself/himself play a major part in preparing it. The chocolate dish may be a dessert, but children should strive to find recipes that are not dessert and that incorporate chocolate (or cocoa). Ask that students stay away from chocolate brownies, cookies, or other ubiquitous recipes. Extend an invitation to all parents to come and partake in the chocolate party. On the day of the party, have all students bring their dishes and sample the world’s chocolate bounty!