Sushi. Yum.


Yes, my friends, we made sushi in class today. Yes, we; that includes me. I've been a fan of sushi for years. (This might sound gross, but in North Florida, where I'm from, there is a supermarket chain called Publix, and they sell sushi in the fresh fish area of the store. I <3 supermarke sushi from Publix. Anyway, it's the South, and we love us some mayonnaise. Yes, (gasp!) they put some kind of mayo concoction in the middle of the sushi rolls at Publix on 23rd Street in Panama City, and I must admit that it is tasty. Whatever sells, right?) However, until today, I'd only eaten sushi prepared by others.

In my class, the third day of the school week is known as Wellness Wednesday. We dedicate this day to being well and healthy. (Only one day per week. GO BODY!!! YAY!) On this day, the kids are not allowed to bring to school anything resembling junk food. No chips at lunch, no cookies at break. I am quite the drill sergeant at PE, and today we had a great discussion on puberty and body changes. The best part about Wellness Wednesdays is that we learn how to prepare a nutritious snack in class, and the best part of doing is that we eat whatever we make. This has been a great idea this quarter in school, and it has improved parent involvment with the class. Some weeks students' parents come out and help with the snacks! In past weeks, we've made two types of smoothies, kim and rice, potato salad, and this week we made sushi.


As I mentioned before, I had never made sushi. I've wanted to learn how to prepare it for quite some time, so today was a terrific opportunity for me. The roles of teacher and students were reversed this morning because some of my students were much more experienced than I in the art of rollling sushi. I allowed a couple of my resident food artists to take control, and they coached me through the contruction of a not-so-perfect, kind-of-scrawny but tasty roll of sushi. Then the kids took turns rolling sushi until the ingredients ran out. It was so much fun and a good learning experience for me, a good learning experience or all (except for maybe Kirstan who is pictured above seated at the table with his head down looking like he is dying. He was not feeling too well today but would not hear of going home. Poor thing.)


Like I said, the best part of preparing nutritious snacks at school is that we get to eat what we make. Yum! We made our snack a little later than usual today which was probably a good thing. It spoiled most of our appetites for lunch. Guess who caters our school lunches on Wellness Wednesday. KFC.

Isn't it ironic?

Don't ya think?