Mardi Gras: A Recipe for... (disaster?)

Everyone is crazy in Louisiana (more so than usual) for Mardi Gras weekend!  Here is a strategy I used with my braille kids to check their ELA and independent living skills. I’m calling this: “A Recipe for ….(disaster?)”

In order to have a little fun with my braille users in second period, I borrowed Activity 27 “No-Bake Chocolate Cream Pie” p.87 from the Fun with Braille book by Robin Wingell for its format to devise a quiz on making a banana split. All I told the students was, “Here is a quiz. Based on the way you answer the questions is how you will prepare this food item tomorrow. Since the answers are only ‘true’ or ‘false’ and there are three of you, the answer that is chosen the most for the question will be the answer used for the recipe.” The students diligently and with much discussion answered the questions (see sample below). 

I took their answers and devised the recipe. Instead of cherries, they ended up with mixed fruit in it and on the question of toppings, since the popular answer was "syrup", I brought a bottle of maple syrup.  Don’t worry, I did bring chocolate syrup too. The next day the students followed the recipe and created their version of a banana split. Just so you know, I have used the activity as printed in the book and it was just as much fun!

Anna Gayle (agayle@lsdvi.org)