4th Book Club

So... There has been the largest meat recall in history... what perfect timing for the book club... I jumped right on that one. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to discuss this with the 5th graders. I printed out some articles about the recall and we read them together. The kids were shocked! We talked about how the cows should eat grass and live in a large field - but they eat corn (which their bodys don't know how to process the right way) and live in a cement building and do not get much, if any sun. The students were asking great questions. Why don't the farmers do it the right way? Why don't they get to eat grass and wander in the field? Why do the people at the slaughter house hurt the sick cows? It is all about the profit. Great discussion!!!

I also told them a story about a local byson farmer. My friend works a restaurant in Columbia. She told me about this. The byson farmer has a wonderful set-up. The byson are born on the farm, wander and graze on the grass, no hormones, no antibiotics and they have a great life being a byson. They are butchered on the farm and sold to local resturants and local buyers. Great farm!!! So the byson farmer lives next to a cow farmer. The cows get feed cheese curls, potato chips and barly mash. The farmer buys the damaged chips from a local snack company and feeds that to the cows, and he also buys the leftover mash from a whiskey plant. The cows never see the light of day and are pumped full of hormones and antibiotics. The byson farmer said they are so overweight because of their diet and no movement. Guess who he sells the meat to after it is slaughtered???? ... MCDONALDS - AHHHHH! It really doesn't surprise me - but very sad. The kids were so angry, they wanted to sue McDonalds.

Then we finally started to read Chew on This and ate our company muffins (oats, carrots, apples and other yummies) and vanilla yogurt. I planned on making falafel - went to the store on a snowy night and they were closed so I improvised at home. The book discussed how the fries are made - from ground to store. The kids want to finish the book - It just makes me so excieted to see them becoming passionate about this book!

Next week falafel - I promise!

3rd Book Club

This week pumkin soup!!! The kids loved it - I was so excited. It had pumpkin, apples, onions, ginger, broth, cinnamon and nutmeg and we put sour cream on the top. Yum yum.

The vocab words this week were squash (dickenson, acorn, african winter, kabocha, and butternut) and Dextrose. We discussed that anything ending in -ose is a processed sugar. We talked about bad sweetners (splenda, white sugar, aspertame, corn syrup (cheapest sweetner - in soda) ) We also discussed what a better sweetner is (honey, real maple syrup, agave nectar, raw sugar) and why those are not nearly as bad for your body - they are in a pretty natural state - not processed. You still do not want to consume to much of them. I was excited to hear that some of the kids knew what aspertame and was and one girl said that her mom told her if it rhymes with gross it is not good for you.

Chew on This was discussing students working at McDonald's, how unfair their policies are, how they treat their employees, how they market towards children, and how the toys make more than all books and magazines combined make. The studetns were pretty upset at some of the things that the book was discussing. It is very exciting to me that the children are critically thinking and are questioning what is going on. They were asking great thoughtfull questions. They club is exhausing by the time I am done - but the students give me hope and get me fired up!!!

Next week falafel!!!