Travel the World Through Chocolate

Travel the World Through Chocolate from Dan Mitchell on Vimeo.

Our plan

I wanted to teach fourth through eighth graders that they could travel the world without ever leaving home. Through their senses of taste, smell and hearing, they could go anywhere they wanted to go. I designed the workshop to explore new landscapes, cultures and people by eating lots of chocolate with the hopes of opening their horizons and filling their bellies! I wanted them to learn about the history of chocolate, how to make chocolate, the proper way to eat chocolate and ultimately to write a guidebook about chocolate. My idea was always that we would perfect this delicious adventure at 826CHI! I had found in sharing chocolate with adults that eating chocolate was a transforming experience that made them speak candidly about what they were tasting, smelling, feeling, etc. and thought that it could translate to kids, getting them to use all of their senses to do the same. We would learn about four different countries in the class, including the native music, basic vocabulary, what kids like to do there and the kinds of confections these countries inspire. The class would produce a book on chocolate tasting and making, so that the students would walk away with a tangible piece of work after all the chocolate had been eaten. We also would spend one session making truffles so they would learn about working as a team on a production and assembly line. They would leave this experience with a beautiful box of truffles to share with their family and friends.

What we did

We began with a summer workshop that was four sessions: How to Eat Chocolate, Travel the World for Inspiration, Truffle Making and Chocolate Storytelling. We had a lesson plan each week that was interactive and experiential. One of the biggest hits of the class was a game where we tested the sense of smell by having the students guess what they were smelling using essences from all over the world. As we have started to teach the second round of this workshop the plan continues to evolve so that we can touch as many students as possible. We have condensed the workshop curriculum into fewer sessions (guaranteeing that more students will be able to take part in all of them) and are now working on a two-hour workshop that could be brought into the schools or be a part of the field trips at 826. I cannot begin to describe how invaluable it has been to have all of the feedback from the students who have taken the class. The first session’s students really helped us shape the second session and the writing that we are generating from the new session is much more creative and thought through. We thought if we focused more on the writing than the chocolate, the students would be turned off, but we have had so many parents tell us that their child cannot stop talking about the chocolate workshop during the week and how excited they are to come back and work on writing their book!

Our results

We have taught 30 students and hope to teach hundreds! We’ve had students tell us it was the best thing they did all summer and that they are excited about writing! We want to continue to work on making the curriculum as accessible as we can and figuring out additional ways to bring the program into the schools.