The Natural Wealth of Brazil
Objectives
As a result of this lesson, students will be able to:
- Describe the texture, flavor, appearance, and smell of various tropical fruits from Brazil.
- Name the fruits in Portuguese
Materials
- One each of the following fruits:**
- pineapple
- acerola
- papaya
- mango
- passion fruit
- honey dew
- lime
- drinking glasses & water
- blindfolds (1 for every 2 students)
- napkins
- world map
(** Teacher's Note: Most of these fruits are widely available in supermarkets. If not available in supermarkets, specialty markets or ethnic markets will carry them. If a fruit is not available, a photo of that fruit may be substituted.)
Activities
1. Section the fruits in bite-size pieces, place them in bowls, respectively, then set them aside.
- Show students a map of the world and point out Brazil's location.
- Explain that due to the close proximity to the equator, Brazil enjoys many exotic and tropical fruits all year round.
- Explain that even in winter (which is summer for us), tropical fruit is abundant and fresh.
- Explain that at breakfast, fresh fruit is almost always present. In fact, it is not unusual for families to have tropical fruit trees in the yard that supply food for meals. (This is more common in non-urban settings for obvious reasons.)
2. Divide the class into pairs, and supply each pair with two drinking glasses and one blindfold. Some napkins should be provided as well as a garbage container.
- Designate one student to be the "recorder" and one to be the "taster."
- Direct the recorder to take a sheet of paper, to create four headings: texture, taste, smell and reactions, and to record the taster's response in each category to the four fruits being used in the experiment.
- Direct the taster to put on the blindfold.
- Once the taster has put on the blindfold, give the recorder a piece each of pineapple, acerola, papaya, and mango.
- Direct the recorder to give the taster one piece of each fruit to taste. After tasting each piece, the taster should stop and describe the texture, smell, and taste of that fruit. Once finished, they should take a sip of water to cleanse their pallet and the move on to the next fruit and continue in the same fashion.
- Direct the recorder to document the taster's responses, including the overall reaction, both verbal and non-verbal, to each fruit that their partner tries.
- Once the blindfolded students have tried each fruit and their responses have been recorded, direct them to remove their blindfolds and to switch places with the recorder.
- When the students have traded places, hand the passion fruit, honeydew, and lime to the new recorder once the blindfold is securely on the new taster. The same procedure should be carried out as before with the new roles.
- Once all the fruit has been sampled, and the responses recorded, direct students to clean up and return to a clean workspace to continue.
3. Place the name of each fruit, in English, on the chalkboard. As each name is placed on the board, hold up that fruit for all the students to see.
- Ask the recorders to share the adjectives used by the tasters to describe each fruit's smell, taste, and texture. Place these words on the chalkboard beside or beneath each of the fruits as appropriate.
- Ask students to locate Brazil on the world map once again, and ask them if they know the official language of Brazil.
- Explain to the class that Brazil is the only country in Latin America where Portuguese is the official language.
- Place the Portuguese name for the fruits on the board next to their name in English, one at a time, pronouncing and practicing with the students repeating:
- pineapple=abacaxi
- acerola=acerola
- papaya=mamão
- mango=manga
- passion fruit=maracujá
- melon=melão
- lime=limão
- Hold up the fruits one at a time, pronouncing them in Portuguese and having the students repeat. Each fruit should be practiced at least twice.
- Read out loud one of the descriptions from the board of one of the fruits, and ask students to name the fruit in Portuguese. This should be done for each fruit.
- (You may want to mention that many other dishes and desserts are made from or enhanced by these tropical fruits. Passion fruit mousse and lime mousse are just examples.)
