Ms. Schwartz's 3rd Graders Make Salsa

On November 8, Ms. Schwartz's 3rd graders made salsa with ingredients from Gelson's and the school garden. The chili peppers and onions came from the school garden and the rest of the ingredients were donated.  The children remembered planting most of the ingredients last spring as part of the 2nd grade salsa garden and generated the names of the ingredients.

Since we were using 3 T. of both olive oil and lime juice, we discussed the meaning of 1 T. and 1 t. The children learned that there are 3 teaspoons in 1 tablespoon.

We also discussed that store bought salsa (and other prepared food at the store) has a list of ingredients and not all of them are food. The items are listed by the volume that is contained in the container. In the case of salsa, that's tomatoes.  Our salsa, which is made of fresh ingredients, also has salsa as the main ingredient.  Our salsa is also very colorful due to the differently colored tomatoes, the onions and cilantro.

Thanks to the volunteers who helped: Rayza and Karina from Gelson's, class parents Cynthia Snell, Alexandra Evans and Thomas Cragg, Carolyn Hasselkorn and Laurie Vander Veen. Note that we use reusable utensils in our cooking projects.

The recipe: 8 tomatoes (ideally different colors), 1/2 bunch cilantro, 6 scallions or 1/2 onion, 2 garlic cloves, 3 T. lime juice, 3 T. olive oil, 1/2 jalapeno chili, salt and pepper to taste.  All of the ingredients should be cut into small pieces. Note: we used a small red chili from the school garden. You can also use 1/2 red onion to add more color.

Follow ups to this lesson: write down the ingredients for other items that you make, look at the ingredients in canned food that you eat and note the non food related items for preserving, make another kind of salsa...