I didn’t really need anything from the market that day. What I really needed was a diversion from my work. Sad but true, Trader Joe’s did the trick.
All was going according to plan until I noticed a display near the frozen aisle. There, right before my eyes were stacks and stacks of enormous chocolate bars imported from all over the globe.
A normal middle-aged woman might have responded, “C-h-o-c-o-l-a-t-e! Yes!” She might have cracked open a bar and taken a big bite. But not me, no, I’m a teacher. So I grabbed a handful of the luscious bars and got in line, while simultaneously crafting a lesson for the next day.
This would be a cross-curricular writing lesson. I would begin with a session of chocolate taste testing, gathering sense words and phrases with the group along the way. Then, after my students chose their favorite variety from the tasting, I would direct them to a mass of geography books, the ones I was on my way to pluck from the shelves of my local library on my way home from the trip to Trader Joe’s (the trip that was supposed to divert me from my work). My students would then research the country from which their favorite chocolate originated. After they gathered some notes, they would craft a poem of place and taste! By the time I pulled into my driveway a thought crossed my oddly refreshed brain, “Tomorrow will be grand!”
– Kim
The result of that lesson is delicious:
Swiss Chocolate (Taylor, age 14)
It melts in my mouth
silky,
like velvety Swiss hills
gleaming in the morning sun.
Sweet milk awakes my
taste buds
like the cry of an alpha
horn in the alps.
But it doesn't last long,
no,
like a fiery sunset
it melts away
revealing a moony relish.
Ecuador Chocolate (Andrew, age 12)
Ecuador,
A small land,
With a big taste
For chocolate
Located in
South America
Its aroma is like
A life-filling river
Exploding with goodness
Land crammed
With jungles
And unrestrained disaster
Raining chocolate
Scented happiness
Milk creamy chocolate
Like sun melting
Tender and hot,
Like the steaming lands
Of Ecuador
Edged by
Colombia and Peru
Molded by hard,
Her chewy essence
Is never-ending
Flavor is tantalizing
Sometimes awkward,
A bitter-sweet flavor
Resembles people in despair
Spanish,
The official language
Like the official chocolate
Of Ecuador
Ecuador,
A small land,
With a big taste
For chocolate
My Chocolate (Hunter age 14)
Mouth watering
Bitter sweetness
Overwhelms and infuses
My taste buds
With unimaginable possibilities
Wild animals venture
Rugged Andes
Revealing bitterness
The lush green beauty
That stretches across the land
Tall and wide
Explains the sweetness
Together, bitter and sweet
Make an everlasting
Gobble of Peruvian perfection
Swiss Chocolate (Jonathan, age 10)
Icy fingers unwrap
chilly fangs, a chocolate monster
contained in a bar of wild
Swiss chocolate.
The addicting taste
claws my mouth
like a lion holds on to its prey
unwilling to let go, slender claws
dig deep into the flesh.
As wings of ice
swoop over the town
ice smothers the street
enjoying its time to shine
before the sun’s rays
destroy the velvet,
glistening coat.
Snowballs are thrown
bruises are unleashed
while snow angel’s watch
from their snow bound places.
From the top of the Matterhorn
to the Rhine River, Swiss chocolate
spreads its tender flavor
to even the most desolate
parts of the land.
Tenderly handled,
the chocolate is bread
and milk to warm a soul.