The preschoolers read the book “Bee-him Bop!” By Linda Sue Park. In the story, a Korean-American girl celebrates food and family and shares the process of helping her mother cook a special meal of Bibimbap. From shopping, preparing the ingredients, setting the table, cooking and sitting together as a family to enjoy a favourite meal, she shares it all!
Inspired by this heartfelt story, Educator Jung invited the preschoolers to partake in a similar experience to make her favourite meal of Bibimbap. Before we began, we reviewed the story one more time and recalled the ingredients we needed and thoroughly washed our hands to ensure we maintained safe food handling.
At the table, Jung introduced us to a rice cooker and showed us the process of cooking the rice for this meal. Once the rice was cooking, we worked together to prepare the rest of the ingredients by chopping and seasoning the zucchini, cucumber, carrots, spinach and the meat. After the rice, vegetables and meat were cooked (separately), we mixed all these ingredients together to enjoy this special meal as a group for lunch.
Through this experience, we explored new tastes, textures and ingredients, building on our curiosity and expanding our understanding of different cultures and traditions. A few preschoolers devoured the meal they worked hard to make and asked for seconds, while some were just excited to have a taste and try something else. Nonetheless, as Theo often reminds us we “don’t yuck on people’s yums!” - We also learned to respect that everyone has different likes and dislikes, and that all foods can be special to someone. This was a meaningful opportunity to celebrate diversity, develop empathy, and appreciate the richness of cultural foods from around the world!
