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Nutritional Anthropology and Culinary Education Every culture has its own set of values, rituals, and traditions surrounding food. The staple ingredients, indulgences, and forbidden fruits of a given culture are influenced by agricultural systems, habitat, ethical concepts, and religious beliefs. Holidays and celebrations around the world are associated with traditional and ritual foods. Have you ever wondered why birthday cakes are round? Or why latkes are fried during Hanukkah and Buche de… Read More
Learning about Jewish culture and history often leads parents and children to conversations about their own family’s history, culture, and traditions. In celebration of Passover, families can connect to Jewish culture or personal Jewish heritage by speaking Yiddish!
Each offering unique takes on the art of drawing, upcoming arts-based community events encourage art as creative free play and self expression. In Shelburne Falls, the 2nd annual Hilltown Draw Around offers a space in which to make art everywhere – floor and walls included. In Easthampton, the Circus Sketch Lab connects movement-based expression with the art of drawing, making for an experiment in collaborative creation.
Food is a delectable lens through which to explore local history and culture: not only is it delicious, but it’s something that is a part of everyone’s life, no matter age or socioeconomic status. Eating is a universal human experience, and the what and why of this experience speaks volumes to the context in which we live our lives.
Covering the contents of local plates over the last 250 years, Historic Northampton’s “Table Talk” spotlights the changes that the city’s food-centric downtown has seen. Speaking to food and many other topics, the exhibit offers a unique opportunity for community-based learning.
Ringing in the Chinese New Year! By exploring Chinese art, food, music, and traditions, families can gain background knowledge to support participation in regional celebrations of the lunar holiday. Read more in our post, Chinese New Year Brings Opportunities for Cultural Studies.
Agricultural fairs, primarily established by agricultural societies for the purpose of agriculture promotion, science and education, celebrate New England history and local culture in communities all over western Massachusetts throughout late summer and early fall. These generations-old traditions of agriculture, self-sufficiency, and resiliency in rural communities afford families opportunities to participate in intergenerational community-based traditions while offering a myriad of entertainment and learning experiences through the lens of culture and food.
S.D. Nelson’s “Buffalo Bird Girl” tells the story of a young Hidatsa girl, following her through a year’s worth of seasonal change and detailing the activities that take place in her life based upon the changes taking place in the natural world. Helping readers learn about Native American culture, the story presents families with information that challenges them to compare their own lives to those of members of the Hidatsa tribe – and accompanying hands-on activities offer experiential learning centered around local Native American culture.
Running all summer, our highly popular and comprehensive series of literary guides are written by graduate students in the Integrated Learning teacher preparation program at Antioch University New England. They are designed to enrich the reading experience of your child. Each week a new book is featured.
This week’s book is for 5th graders and for kids at middle school level, and it’s a literary treat of intrigue and mystery! “When You Reach Me,” by Rebecca Stead is one giant enigma built upon clever riddles, as it covers two children interacting with Manhattan. The literary guide hones in on maximizing the developmental skills of detail tracking, note-taking, supporting inferences with evidence, and building a system of connections as the story progresses.
The literary guides have proven to be popular this summer. Read on to see how you can further develop your child’s reading experience with these wonderful guides!
Running all summer, our highly popular and comprehensive series of literary guides are written by graduate students in the Integrated Learning teacher preparation program at Antioch University New England. They are designed to enrich the reading experience of your child. Each week a new book is featured.
This week we have a peach of a read called “Alec’s Primer,” by Mildred Pitts Walter. It’s a true story of freedom that spends time just up the road in Grafton, Vermont. It’s an inspiring narrative of perseverance and the spirit of self-education. The literary guide will direct you to enable your elementary school age children to explore themes of freedom, slavery and the Civil War. In addition to supporting place-based studies of the Civil War and the abolition movement, a reading of the book can spark discussion on topics such as what it means to be free, the ethics of restricting access to knowledge, courage, determination, and strength.
Our summer series of literary guides written by graduate students in the Integrated Learning teacher preparation program at Antioch University New England are designed to maximize your child’s reading experience, and mobilize critical thinking.
This week’s guide looks at local author Mordicai Gerstein and her book “The Mountains of Tibet.” The subject covers critical thinking with regard to topics such as religion and reincarnation. Children will consider different cultures and their belief systems, and critically analyse similarities and differences they may notice, in relation to themselves. Needless to say this is a stimulating exercise for kids- especially for third graders and older.
Our series of literary guides written by graduate students in the Integrated Learning teacher preparation program at Antioch University New England are designed to maximize your child’s reading experience. A quality outlook to your child’s reading releases so much in terms of a child’s reading and sophisticated interpretation of themes.
This week Jeanne Birdsall’s “The Penderwicks” is set in the Berkshires and covers the adventures of four daughters and their eccentric dad while on a quirky vacation. The text drives critical thinking and theme connection and is suitable for those kids ages 10-11. The guide provides direction on how to maximize this wonderful reading experience! Download it now for free!
Our summer series of literary guides written by graduate students in the Integrated Learning teacher preparation program at Antioch University New England are designed to maximize your child’s reading experience, and mobilize critical thinking.
This week’s guide helps us navigate William Steig’s “Sylvester and the Magic Pebble” under the banner of ‘be careful what you wish for.’ The illustrations offer first and second graders challenges to find clues linking to the overall narrative, and a wealth of new words to discover. They’ll also be inspired to construct that verbally watertight wish (we’ve all done it!) and to imagine where it could take them. Literally an inspiring read that will enrich your child’s literary development.
Our summer series of literary guides written by graduate students in the Integrated Learning teacher preparation program at Antioch University New England are designed to maximize your child’s reading experience, and mobilize critical thinking.
This week’s lit guide to Arthur Dorros’ story, “Abuela,” inspires young readers to connect to Hispanic culture, learn Spanish phrases and also to recognize illustrative patterns. The great concept of ‘journey’ is also open to exploration.
Read on and see how “Abuela” can lead your child’s literary development!
May Day has rich history. Today, a fully celebrated May Day likely includes May baskets filled with flowers, beautifully dressed Morris dancers, and the wrapping of a May pole. Here we have included three upcoming events in Western MA that celebrate May Day, along with ideas on how to celebrate at home and a short recommended reading list…
Women and Food Photographic Exhibition will be display in Easthampton for the month of September. Local artist and writer Sarah Platanitis’ photographic project, “Women and Food,” has an appeal for a younger audience with healthy role models of local women giving back to their communities, doing what they love to do…
Discovering The Balalaika If you’re watching someone “rock out” in the USA, chances are they are playing a guitar. It might be a bass guitar, an electric guitar, an acoustic guitar or maybe even a 12 string guitar, but it probably is some kind of guitar. Along with the banjo and the fiddle, it’s one of our country’s “stringed instruments of choice.” Now if you were to travel almost halfway around the… Read More
Happy New Year and Happy Chinese New Year! Along with the January 1st ringing in of the new year, there are several other types of new year celebrations that are marked by different cultures, countries and other religions. For instance, on January 23rd, Chinese New Year celebrates the arrival of a new year – the year of the Dragon! What’s a Chinese New Year celebration like? Great fun and lots of festivities…. Read More
Watch a Little Dreydl Spin! December is such an exciting time of year as folks prepare for holidays such as Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa. For those who are celebrating Hanukkah or the Festival of Lights, there are goodies to prepare, a menorah to light with it’s eight special candles, relatives to greet and a wonderful little game to play based on a top that spins, called the dreydl (or dreidel). So why… Read More
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