Study chocolate? Oh YES!
This was our second time enjoying this rich topic. We briefly touched on it when we studied the rain forest. This time was better because we devoted an entire week to chocolate. Yum.
This is our third Download N Go experience, and I must confess– I heart Download N Go. Try it, and you will probably heart it too! The days are planned for you. You don't have to work the lessons into a plan. You don't have to go looking for supplemental material. You don't have to check the links. You don't have to hunt down fun videos on YouTube or conjure up a supplemental book list. You don't have to create a lapbook from scratch, and you don't have to think of fun project ideas. It's all right there ready for download!
So, with all that done for me, what DO I do in order to pull off a successful experience with DNG?
1. I open the ebook, scan through it, and decide what to print. I print the activity pages, the lapbook, and a few other pages. Instead of using the worksheets, Elijah narrates to me each day.
2. I make a supply list and buy a few things when I do my weekly grocery shopping. You don't HAVE to do this, but I do. I like to do some cooking or a memorable project with my kids as part of the unit.
3. I grab some books off my shelves. You don't need extra books, but I hoard books, so we use them.
Once I have those three things done, I start the unit.
We began with chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, a family favorite.
We learned about one chocolatier each day. To make this relevant, I purchased chocolate products that matched up with the chocolatiers of the day.
On Monday the boys split a Hershey Bar. On Tuesday they devoured some Wonka chocolate (Nestle company). On Wednesday they chomped the Cadbury Milk Bar. On Thursday they shared the Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate and Toffee Bar. On Friday we gobbled up some treats made by Lindt. Nobody makes truffles like Lindt! I think the boys are official chocolate snobs; they now know the difference between good chocolate and great chocolate!
Throughout the week, Elijah worked through the activity pages and lapbook. Elijah is working hard here on the lay-out of his notebook.
Here is the final product–a great record of what he learned!
Page 1– chocolatiers and their products
Page 2– more chocolatiers and their products
Page 3– vocabulary and graph
*the "What's in a A Chocolate Bar" is just a small simple fold we made. You can do this too! Just fold a piece of paper in half.
Page 4
*the Chocolate Candy Bar activity was from Homeschool Share
Page 5– all about cacao (and yes, we know how to pronounce it!)
*again, the two tiny yellow books we made ourselves; we wanted to include this information from the unit in the lapbook without doing the worksheet pages
Page 6 -timeline
Page 7– drawing of a cacao tree, where cacao grows
Page 8– rain forest layers, chocolate treats pop-up, word find
*the green flap book includes the layers of the rain forest; this activity is found in the DNG, but Elijah made it into a flap book
Page 9– learning about Brazil
*we added four Brazil mini books from Homeschool Share, but this is not necessary
Page 10– more about Brazil and cacoa beans as money
The boys decided that chocolate ice cream topped with homemade hot fudge would be the best way to end our week. This stuff is good. Really good. Make it at your own risk.
My little chef starts the sauce.
Stirring and being goofy!
Elijah takes over with the blender.
Good enough to eat!
If you want to enjoy Chocolate Challenge, it will be released on August 1st. We got a sneak peek since I'm friends with the lapbook designer. 😉
This looks like a lot of fun!! I just might risk enduring an enormous headache (I’m allergic to chocolate!), to do this unit with my boys…. 😉
Oh Wendy! I can’t imagine being allergic to chocolate. There are some other fun food studies from Download N Go: Pizza Party, Crunchy Cookies, and Hoppin’ Popcorn. Maybe one of those would be a better match for you and your boys! 🙂 My son wants to do ALL the food studies. Big surprise. 😉