For our final lesson of the year, we read The Mochi Makers by Japanese American author and illustrator Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson. The book tells the story of a child and her grandparent who carry on their family tradition of making savory and sweet mochi from pounded glutinous rice for friends and family to enjoy.
In the kitchen, the first grade chefs made shiratama dango, a Japanese rice dumpling similar to mochi made from a special glutinous rice flour called shiratamako. They flavored the dango dough with matcha powder, then formed the dango into small balls we then boiled. While the dango cooked, students did a word search featuring all the recipes we made together this year in first grade Edible Social Studies.
Dango make a delightfully chewy topping for a Japanese ice cream sundae. Ours featured vanilla ice cream from Straus Family Creamery, strawberries, sesame seeds, kinako, red beans, and condensed milk. It was a sweet ending to 10 weeks of exploring all things rice!
