CORPUS CHRISTI — A Mathis Elementary School teacher is mixing things up for her Pre-K students by bringing the kitchen to classroom.
Tiffani Jurach started thinking of ways to help her pupils learn the alphabet and also teach them some independence.
“Everybody loves food, so I try to connect their ABC’s with a food at the end of the week and that way they are able to connect it at home,” Jurach said.
Jurach calls it Foodie Friday.
“Foodie Friday is the best thing ever,” Jurach said. “They absolutely love it. They look forward to Foodie Fridays.”
When KRIS 6 visited her classroom of mostly 4-year-olds, the food for that week was butter.
“What are we gonna make?” Jurach asked the class. “Butter!” they replied.
Jurach wrote a large capital and lowercase ‘B’ on a white canvas before spelling out the word.
“Oh it starts with a B,” Jurach said. “Buh-Buh-Butter.”
“B-U-T-T-E-R,” the class read aloud with her.
Jurach held a construction paper wheel with a piece cut out and another paper under it. When rotated, each space revealed a step to make butter.
“We have to look at our directions to see what we do next,” Jurach said.
“It shows them step by step on what to do so tonight,” Jurach said during the interview. “They can go home and they can show their mom how to make butter.”
According to U.S. Census Bureau data, 29.6 percent of Mathis’ population lives in poverty.
“Some kids don’t have the mentors at home,” Jurach said. “To be able to teach them how to make their own peanut butter and jelly, or their parents do everything for them. They get so excited that they made their own at home.”
Jurach said Foodie Friday also helps the children in other ways, like learning about following instructions.
“They start with a jar and cream and then they move on to the jar and pour the cream,” Jurach said, “You have to open the lids. You can’t just pour it or it doesn’t work. It’s a sequence activity.”
“That’s the jar’s cap,” pre-k student, Daniel Guerrero said as he pointed at the illustration of the jar’s lid on the instruction wheel.
Jurach said she allows kids to be hands on with the lesson so they can learn skills that they will use forever.
After pouring heavy crème into a mason jar, Jurach separated the class into two groups and had them sit in a circle.
“You got to shake it like this,” Jurach told the kids as she grabbed the jar with both hands and shook it.
Each child took a turn shaking the jar for a few seconds then passed it on to the other and so forth.
While the jar was passed around, the class sang the alphabet, the months of the year and their numbers.
After ten minutes, the liquid in the jar became solid.
Jurach popped open the lid and showed it around the classroom.
“I’m gonna tell my mom that we made butter,” pre-k student, Elizabeth Alvarado, said.
