One way I love to connect to my students is through their stomachs. Middle Schoolers LOVE food and I MEAN LOVE. They will do almost anything with some food…encouragement..

I usually make something to bring in for different holidays – King Cake for Mardi Gras, Crêpes for Chandeleur. For a long time I have wanted to do a cheese tasting with my classes and this was the year I finally did.

Preparation

I began by scoping out my local grocery stores to see what kinds of French cheeses they carried (not like I hadn’t already spent plenty of time in the specialty cheese aisle before).  I looked for a variety of cheeses – soft cheese, hard cheese, blue cheese, goat cheese – and planned my lesson accordingly.  

The five cheeses I purchased:

1. Brie

2. Gruyère

3. Port Salut

4. Roquefort

5. Boursin

In the lesson I included some cheese cutting etiquette, where the cheese was from (we had studied regions), what kind of animal milk (a good way to review animals) and any interesting facts.  I included the cheeses I had bought and also other famous or personal favorites.

Once the lesson was prepped, I prepared the cheese platters!  Each student got a plate labeled 1-5, five small pieces of baguette and several grapes (as a palette cleanser). In order to save time, I HIGHLY recommend cutting the bread and cheese in small slices and labeling the plates the night before.

The lesson

At the beginning of class, I gave them an introduction to cheese and then we tried our first cheese – Brie.  I thought I would start with something mild. As students tried the cheeses they gave each one a rating.  We continued until all they had tried all of the cheeses. At the end, I asked them questions abouts their favorites, “Qui a préféré… le Brie?” and gave them another square of their favorite since I had enough.

I was impressed with their willingness to try the cheeses (even the Roquefort).  I thought for sure middle schoolers would be resistant to trying something new but even the picky eaters tried some of the cheeses.  It was such a fun way to bring in culture and get them out of their comfort zone.  

You can find my lesson on Cheese in my TPT store here (Coming Soon!)