School Lunch Programs: Pros and Cons

Have you ever attended a school with a Lunch program? In class today, we discussed the possible positive and negatives of school-wide Lunch programs. We learned about a young photojournalist named Martha, who began a blog called Never Seconds in 2009 to document what she (and her friends) were being served for lunch every day. You can access her the archive of her blog here: https://neverseconds.blogspot.com/

Never Seconds :: LocalFoody Blog

Image description: a slice of pizza, a muffin, a small amount of corn, and an unidentified fried item (fish stick?) are placed sloppily on a lunch tray.

We discussed how, for many people, a school Lunch or Breakfast program may be their only access to a consistent, nutritionally balanced meal for a variety of reasons (food insecurity, affordability, time constraints, etc.). Our concerns, however, were that many of the meals being served to Martha (and to many students across the world) were not nutritionally-balanced, were unappetizing, and were not a correct serving size.

What are your experiences with a school Lunch program? Do you think that all schools should have them?

Feel free to watch the video below, of how an amazing crew of “Lunch ladies” feed over 400 students a day at a middle school in New York City:

Lunar New Year: Making Dumplings

Today, Ms. Lee came to talk to our class about Lunar New Year. We discussed how many cultures and countries celebrate the Lunar New Year, often with a special meal with family and friends. While not all people eat dumplings during this time of year, many families may choose to make dumplings as a symbol of wealth and fortune. Our classes created our own dumplings using pork, cabbage, green onions, eggs, chives, soy sauce, sesame oil, and dumpling wrappers.

Here are some photos of the process, below:

Stay tuned for the recipe, which will be posted later this week!

Best wishes,

-Ms. Ward

Formal Writing: Email Etiquette

Our Grade 7s have been discussing how being able to send a formal, professional email will benefit us in the future. We learned that whether we are connecting with a teacher, asking our professor a question, contacting a future employer, demanding action from politicians, or sending an invoice to a customer, using a formal tone in an email is helpful.

Students have been tasked with sending Ms. Ward a formal style email. Please see the PowerPoint (attached) for further information.

Formal Writing_ E-mails and Cover Letters

Game Design: Where Language, Art, and Science Collide

What does it take to design a video game? Our Grade 7s are beginning to examine the skills and strategies that game designers use, including character creation, instructional writing/walkthroughs, mapping and level design, and more!

We began today by viewing this interview with one of the creators of the Mario series! We learned that video games have been around since the 1970s, and have continued to grow and change as technology, culture, and trends shift and change! Feel free to check out the video below:

Some questions to discuss at home:

Have you ever played any video games (including PC, mobile, etc.)? What was your experience like?
What skills do you think a game designer should have and/or develop? Why?
Try playing the ‘original’ version(s) of Mario. What did you notice?

Super Mario Game:

https://supermario-game.com/

Information about the history of Mario:

https://mario.nintendo.com/history/

Marketable Skills: Baking Fruit Crisps

The Easiest Fruit Crisp

Our class took on our most complicated recipe yet… a fruit crisp! We learned that fruit crisps can be made with a variety of types of fillings, including: strawberries, apples, peaches, mangos, cherries, and more! They are also a very economical and delicious way to use up extra fruit, or even frozen fruit!

The topping of our crisps used rolled oats, flour, sugar, and cinnamon along with melted butter. We measured our ingredients carefully and worked collaboratively to make individual sized desserts.

Most of us were very excited with how our fruit crisps turned out. Please feel free to click the recipe above to try making it at home.

Marketable Skills: Baking Pumpkin Pies!

Our Grade 7s put their baking skills into practice this week by creating mini pumpkin pies! Students had to read through the recipe, measure accurately, work collaboratively, and clean-up afterwards. We learned about the origins of pumpkin spice (which usually includes a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and allspice). For some of us, this was our first time trying this seasonal dessert! If you want to make the recipe at home, click the link below:

Pumpkin pie recipe

Marketable Skills: Baking Bootcamp!

What skills does it take to make the perfect chocolate chip cookies? How is baking similar to science? Why is it important to read recipes thoroughly? We began learning about key baking skills this week! Our Grade 7s went through ‘Baking Bootcamp’, where we learned about: when and how to wash our hands, how to keep our materials and workspace sanitary, why accuracy is important, how to use a funnel, how to stir effectively, and how to measure dry and wet ingredients.

While baking may seem like a stress-free activity, it requires many different skills such as: reading comprehension, math (measurement, conversion), cooperation and communication, etc. It also requires a lot of scientific knowledge to make a successful baked good! Feel free to watch the video below to learn how some common mistakes can impact the success of a cookie recipe, and stay tuned for more updates!