The Breads We Eat

See the world in a new way--with the breads people eat. Explore cultural attributes and world populations with a pictograph bulletin board.

• 1.

  Explore the world! Find out which countries have the most people, beginning with China, India, the United States, Indonesia, and Brazil. Or survey your school’s students and their international heritages. Learn about breads people traditionally bake and eat.

• 2.

  <STRONG>Prepare your bulletin board.</STRONG> What kind of graph could you make to show each country’s population? One way is to create a pictograph. Cut colorful paper with Crayola® Scissors to cover a bulletin board. On construction paper, use Crayola Gel Markers to create a colorful border and write each country's name. Attach country labels with a Crayola Glue Stick.

• 3.

  <STRONG>Model the breads</STRONG>. Model small breads as symbols to represent the population of each country. Decide how many people each piece of bread will represent on your pictograph. Use Model Magic to form miniature loaves, rolls, tortillas, or other breads. To create different colors of dough, knead washable marker colors into Model Magic to blend. Roll modeling compound between palms, flatten with fingers, cut, and press with a craft stick to create different textures. Air-dry pieces for 24 hours.

• 4.

  <STRONG>Assemble the chart</STRONG>. Stick pieces of hook and loop fastener tape on the back of each bread. Press matching sticky pieces in strips to the right of each country's label on your bulletin board. Stick on the breads. Make a key for your bulletin board, showing how many people each bread represents.

Benefits

• Students research the characteristics and distribution of human populations on Earth.
• Students identify the types of bread eaten by people in the countries they are studying or cultures represented in their classroom or school.
• Students design a pictograph to represent human populations and other characteristics of the world's nations.

Adaptations

• Investigate other statistics regarding the 10 most populous countries, such as national wealth, number of airports; average life expectancy; population density; and coal, gas, or oil consumption. Use other symbols to show this information. Discuss your id
• Think globally. Act locally. What have you learned about how population and resources are distributed around the world? Research world cultures to answer questions you may have about how other people live and work using various resources. What do you see?
• Hold a "Taste of the World’s Breads" event. Find out what ingredients are used, how breads are made, and what finished products look and taste like. Families bring recipes and samples of breads from countries of their heritage. Or invite families to bake breads in the classroom.