Print version of this lesson plan.

A cooking night among friends and family

Subjects

Home activity

Grade-level

All ages

Time required

An evening

Materials required

  • Ingredients for recipes used in this activity
  • Paper
  • Pen

Related background reading

CHamoru recipes

Related documents

None

Related links

Guampedia: CHamoru recipes

Lesson Plan

Description

In this activity, friends/family will each prepare and share a randomly assigned a recipe in a group or virtual setting.

Objectives/Skills

  • Individuals will interact in a social setting while learning a new recipe. While the aim is of this activity is primarily group building and the strengthening of friendship and familial bonds, the element of learning new recipes will provide an additional cultural dimension.

Questions or Assessment

  • Were the recipes difficult to complete? What would you do differently next time?
  • Taking into account the ease or difficulty of the cooking, how would individuals amend the recipe to create their own personalized approach?
  • Do individuals understand how the historical process of cooking also served as a social event?

Procedure

Organizer Prep

  1. Pick Guamanian recipes that complement each other. Feel free to include a few unfamiliar recipes. Guampedia has numerous recipes.
  2. Obtain all needed ingredients for the recipes.
  3. Write the name of a recipe onto a piece of paper, and then fold it in half.

Cooking Night (Time: An evening)

  1. Invite over a few friends and family either in person or virtually (or a group of youth, etc.).
  2. Explain that each individual (or small groups) will be assigned a randomly selected recipe to prepare that night.
  3. Have each individual (or small group) select a piece of paper at random; they will be assigned this dish for the evening.
  4. Have each individual (or small groups) prepare the dish according to the recipe.
    • Feel free to amend recipes as needed; the importance is in engaging with the recipe and adjusting it to context, not simply following its instructions exactly.
  5. Try and stagger cooking start times in accordance to the length of time required by each recipe; it would be best to have the recipes ready to eat at the same time.
    • Space may be an issue; if so, either pick recipes that do not require many complicated tasks, or stagger the cooking times to prevent crowding in the cooking area.
  6. Have fun!

Recap

In an informal and random order, ask people to share their experiences. Did they learn something about preparing their foods? More importantly, did they enjoy socializing while cooking?

Given this experience, how do they feel that cooking can be a social activity? Can this experience be done successfully virtually?

Ask participants what their favorite parts were, and how they’d do these recipes in the future.