For our final first grade class of the year, we read the book Priya Dreams of Marigolds and Masala, written and illustrated by Meenal Patel. The story follows a family with roots in both India and the United States and celebrates the bright, colorful, and delicious traditions that can traverse time and place. Our units always end with something sweet, so for our last meal together we all enjoyed rice kheer, an Indian rice pudding seasoned with the masala (in this case cardamom, cloves, saffron, and rose) Priya dreams about.
We’ve explored a diversity of rice in all shapes and sizes, each with their own stories, and yet there are so many more dishes and family connections we didn’t have time to share with each other. I hope this unit prompts more discussion around the dinner table for all of us. While listening to music and eating the kheer, the first graders used some of the materials we’ve been working with (brown rice, wild rice, basmati rice, rice vermicelli) as well as black pearl rice, a grain we didn’t have a chance to taste, to make their own rice necklaces, mandalas, or hangings. Some chefs spelled out their names, others incorporated found objects from their own homes, and one managed to make a three-dimensional sculpture using the curve of the dried rice noodles.
Thank you to the entire Harvey Milk first grade community for making this distance learning unit happen given all the obstacles. I look forward to seeing you all next year in second grade!
