Informal Curriculum Looking at an activity in different ways Curriculum as a window and a mirror By: Rebecca Pendergast

Activity Baking Cookies with your students can be a great way to go above and beyond a lesson, and to enrich the relationship of the students and teachers, giving more of a sense of community and family to the classroom environment.

Activity Gather ingredients Have students wash hands Sit at table Show and tell about tools and ingredients Allow each child to do something Measure, stir, cut with cutters, put on tray Finally, after they’re cooked, eat them. YUM!

Sugar Cookies Ingredients 1.5C confectioners sugar 1C butter 1 egg 1tsp vanilla extract.5tsp. Almond extract 2.5C all purpose flour 1tsp baking soda 1tsp cream of tartar granulated sugar for decoration Directions 1.Mix ingredients 2.Roll into a ball, wrap in plastic, and chill for 3 hours 3.Heat oven to 375 degrees 4.Roll dough, cut with cookie cutters 5.Bake for 6-8 minutes

Mirror vs. Window Lessons should be either a window into other cultures and ideas, or a mirror of the child’s own culture. This lesson is more a mirror into the culture of the classroom. We work together as a family, all doing our parts to make a product.

Switching views It would be very easy to switch the view and feel of this activity from a ‘mirror’ to a ‘window’ by making cookies from different cultures. Add in dress up clothes from the culture of the recipe you use. Maybe ask families to share recipes from their own cultures and communities. The possibilitites are endless.

Citation There are no citations to add to this presentation. I utilized a project from a lesson I did with my class this week, and applied it to this lesson. The graphics are from the clip art in ppt. I learned a lot about looking and focusing on a lesson in different ways. You can present the same project in multiple different ways. I plan on using this idea in the future.