Bread comes in different sizes, shapes, colors, and textures. Even so, it's all bread. Little children also come in different sizes, shapes, and colors, but they all belong to the same human race.

Bread is such a simple food, right? That is what many elementary school children think before experiencing the innovative workshop entitled, "Opening the Breadbasket." The workshop was conducted 10 years before the book "Bread is a Simple Food" was written. Through this basic food children can learn a profound lesson about cultures.

This book was written to help children internalize the oneness of the human family.

Bread is a Simple Food

Teaching Children about CulturesBy Cherry Steinwender

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2011 Cherry Steinwender
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4520-8561-6

Chapter One

"Good morning!" Ms. Cherry greeted her class as they settled into their chairs. "As we near the last day of school, I would like for us to have a very special Show-and-Tell Day that will bind us together and give us something very special to remember each other by in the coming years."

"We have classmates whose families moved to the USA after their birth; some are the first generation, and others are second or third generation Americans. We even have classmates whose ancestors have always lived here. What I would like this Show-and-Tell to focus on is the bread that your family would eat in their country of origin. Some of you may still eat the bread of your family's homeland, since people rarely leave their cultures behind when they cross borders to make new homes. Some of you may have to ask your parents or grandparents to help you find or make the bread of their native land."

"Think how wonderful it would be to see bread in different colors, sizes and shapes. What is even more exciting is to think that, like bread, all girls and boys come in different colors, sizes and shapes."

On the morning of Show-and-Tell Day, the children arrived very early with lunch boxes and large bags, eager to share the breads of their cultures. Because everyone wanted to be first, many hands were waving in the air. It was difficult for the teacher to decide who should be first. Finally, she chose Gennet, whose family came from Eritrea and Ethiopia.

Gennet opened a big and heavy bag. She pulled out a very large grey-colored bread called Injera ( n-JER-ah). Her classmates looked on with awe, for they had never seen bread so big or so grey. As she passed pieces around, they discovered it felt like a wet sponge.

Gennet told her friends that the way her family eats Injera is to take one out of the pack and place it on a plate. Next, they put the meat and veggies on top and eat it all with their fingers.

That was not all. Gennet shared another kind of bread her family enjoys. This one was big and round with different symbols carved into the top. "It's called Ambasha (am-BAH-sha) and can be eaten like most bread by breaking off small pieces," she explained.

Tommy could hardly wait his turn. The moment Gennet finished sharing the Ambasha, he waved his hand wildly, "Choose me, please, choose me next!" When the teacher signaled his turn, Tommy rushed to the front of the class and took from his lunch box a tiny, tiny, tiny bread that was very dark in color. "My mother calls this a 'Party Rye,'" he said. Rye is grown primarily in Eastern, Central and Northern Europe. The main rye belt stretches from northern Germany through Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and Latvia into central and northern Russia. Rye is also grown in North America (Canada and the USA) and in South America.

The bread was so small the children giggled as they tried to guess how many sandwiches they would have to eat to consider it a meal. Tommy explained that Rye Bread comes in many sizes and shapes, but Party Rye is easier to share.

Next, the teacher chose Faizi and Bahji, twins who were holding a large box between them. Their classmates could not take their eyes off the box, wondering what size bread could possibly be in it.

Faizi explained that in his home they eat many different types of breads from the Middle East, and he was proud to show the class more.

Bahji reached into the box and pulled out a large flat round bread she called Noon. "Noon O Pander is what we usually eat for breakfast or with cheese for snacks. It's easy to carry and keep because it's flat. The pocket can be stuffed to make a sandwich, or it can be eaten with stew or dips. Americans call it Pocket Bread, or Pita (PEE-tuh)."

Faizi knew the next bread would really wow the children. Barbari (bar-bar-ree) is a very long, flat bread with sesame seeds on top. It could easily feed the entire class. But he did not stop there. Next, he showed off Lavash (LAH-voish), a very thin bread that was bigger than a desktop when unfolded.

Bahji finished by showing Iranian Sweet Bread with raisins.

Zoe and Zach had their classmates on the edge of their seats as they told them about the customs surrounding their family's traditional breads. "Challah (HAH-lah) is a very beautiful and delicious bread," said Zoe, "that's braided three times before baking. It's eaten on the Sabbath to remind Jews of their relationship to God and the land of Israel." Zach and Zoe told their classmates how they loved the Passover because of the special meal called a "Seder," where everyone eats Matzo (MAT-suh), a flat, hard bread that doesn't rise when baked. Zoe and Zach told them that Jews eat Matzo for eight days during Passover to remember that they were once slaves in Egypt. "Now that we are free," the twins told them, "we have a duty to help others become free."

Zoe and Zach's classmates learned a lot about bread and about the history of the Jewish people.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Bread is a Simple Foodby Cherry Steinwender Copyright © 2011 by Cherry Steinwender. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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