In British Columbia, grade 5, in social studies, is Canadian history. Canadian history, of course, includes the fur trade and the voyageurs. When you are talking about the voyageurs, you probably shouldn't be talking, at least grade five students, about country wives, and the possible origin of the Metis. You could, of course, talk about canoeing and the level of difficulty and exertion that the voyageurs put into paddling canoes over long distances. But, unless you have actual cargo canoes, and instructors, and appropriate bodies of water, you can't do much about turning that into an actual hands-on activity.
But you can make pea soup.
You can also make bannock, but bannock requires an oven. Or an open fire and a cast iron frying pan, but that's probably about the same level of difficulties to come across. For pea soup, you need a pot and a hot plate.
Also, I love pea soup.
(Gboard, apparently, does not love pea soup. While I was dictating this, it transcribed "pea soup" as all kinds of other things. Including "I love you.")
So, as a an activity, in social studies, we made pea soup. It's fairly easy, and, depending upon your situation, you can get the students to bring most of what you need. You probably don't need an actual hambone, but some bacon goes a long way to filling in that gap. It's probably a good idea to add an onion or two. If you were going to do spices, you should probably bring your own, because the students probably won't know which spices are appropriate, and how much you will need. You could try and get the students to bring dried peas, as well, but that, I suspect, may be taking a bit of a chance. Yellow peas are the peas that the voyageurs probably used, and you do take a bit of a chance of the students bringing dried green peas. And, these days, they may bring wasabi peas, or some similar snack type item. I figured it would be safest for me to buy and bring my own dry yellow peas.
It's best to start the lesson first thing in the morning. You can do a bit of introduction, talking about the voyageurs, and their meals, and foodstuffs that didn't require refrigeration, and what you could, and couldn't, bring on long trips. While you're doing that, you can get the pot on the hot plate, start it up, and start chopping up the bacon. You dump the bacon into the pot, and fry it up a bit.
I should probably note, at this point, that you send home letters, well in advance, informing the parents of what you are doing, and asking if anyone objects to their child actually eating the pea soup, on a religious basis (for Jews and Muslims), or on a dietary, or allergic basis (for anybody allergic to pork, onions, yellow peas, or even just the off chance that they might be allergic to spices).
Anyway, just about everyone appreciates the smell of frying bacon. Then you chop up the onions, and drop them in, frying them up with the bacon. The whole class is probably very interested by now. Then you dump in the appropriate amount of water while giving a bit more instruction about voyageurs, lack of refrigeration, dried foods, preserved foods (such as salt pork), and other relevant topics until the water comes to a boil. Then you dump in the dried peas. You can leave it on high for a while, but, shortly, you turn it down, and let it simmer. And teach arithmetic, or spelling, or whatever. We'll let the soup simmer for a couple of hours. Until lunch time. At which time, you and the class, or at least that portion of the class who have returned their permission slip, have pea soup for lunch. You dismiss the students, for the remainder of lunch hour, and go up to the staff room. Where are your colleagues are lying in wait. They are all starving to death, because the entire school has been filled with the aroma of simmering pea soup. For the entire morning. Whether you apologize to your colleagues, or lord it over them for being the only one who has been prescient enough to arrange for this particular activity in the history unit, is up to your personal preference.
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Introduction and ToC: https://fibrecookery.blogspot.com/2023/10/mgg-introduction.html
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