TINY EXPLORERS: A CACAO ADVENTURE

Our government has been making changes in the educational system. One of the changes has been within the Early Childhood area. Teachers have been asked to create learning opportunities based around the child’s curiosity, allowing the natural flow of exploration and experimentation.

The two teachers of our youngest students began to listen as the children asked questions about the cacao plants they saw as they walked to their horseback riding lessons each week. “Why are the pods different colors?” “What is inside the pod?” Based on that interest, our teachers asked if they could take a couple of pods and cut them open for the children to see what was inside. They also found some videos online for the children to watch about cacao. While listening to these videos about cacao, they learned that there were between 30 and 35 seeds in each pod; so, they counted seeds on the pods they had cut open. Indeed, that was true!

Their curiosity led to questions about how the plants grow pods, how the seeds turn into chocolate and others. Each new fact that the children learned turned into many more questions. Our teachers helped the children find answers to their questions, turning this learning time into a four week project covering themes in math, science, social studies and literature.
The children took some of the dried seeds we had on the farm to the community mill and watched as the seeds were milled and turned into a chocolate paste. They brought the paste back and molded it into tablets to make hot chocolate. They even packaged the tablets for sale. They sold the tablets for one dollar each and earned $17 in one afternoon. That money was used to replace some of the toys in their learning center boxes.

Learning is a lifetime journey, and following a child’s curiosity turned into quite a fun, tasty and enjoyable experience for all.