Our homeschool geography fair is coming up, and so we’re embarking on a study of France. One of our favorite ways to learn about a new place is to study the culture of food in that place, and so we headed out on a foodie scavenger hunt.
The idea is simple. Each child loaded up with a clipboard, paper, and a pencil. Since I have two children, each one was assigned a certain side of an aisle. They could not leave the aisle until both people were ready to move on to the next one, and they had 40 minutes to find as many French foods as they could. The winner could choose a reasonbly-priced item to take home for us to share.
The kids LOVED this project! They were able to find several breads and cheeses, as well as pastries and cookies, all throughout the store. Since we’re at the beginning of our unit, we haven’t studied much about this yet, but it spurred on their interest, so much that they asked to do it again. We’re having a rematch at a fancier store on our next trip out of town, with the same stakes and rules.
The best part?
The kids are VOLUNTARILY, EXCITEDLY studying the foods of France in preparation for the rematch. They can’t wait to play the game again – and then we get to try more yummy French food.
Sounds like a win-win to me.
What’s your favorite thing about studying other cultures?
Do you have them put them all back when they are finished?
We don’t actually take the items off the shelves, Angie. Instead, the kids take their clipboards inside and write down the name of the items that they find. Since I’m there in the aisle with them, I can be sure that what they’re finding is authentic as they’re writing it. 🙂 They would love to push their own carts full of French foods, but I don’t want to make more work for anyone else – with either us putting things in the wrong places or leaving carts full of food for someone else to put away.