Lentil Sprouts were the Ticket!

Rosebud’s third and fourth graders watched me suspiciously as I scooped the snack of the day into Dixie cups. One said, “It looks like a tick.” I wasn’t feeling too optimistic about this lesson, since the lentil sprouts has not gone over too well in my earlier class with the kindergarteners.

Teaching at Rosebud, I’ve learned that the best way to get students excited about healthy food is to do taste-tests. The challenge is finding food that’s fun to taste. Since the school garden is still in the planning stage, I’ve been browsing the produce section at the grocery store, but I can’t bring myself to purchase dried-out radishes or the saddest-looking cabbages I’d ever seen. Fishing around for ideas in my kitchen, I decided to sprout some Montana-grown organic (Timeless) lentils. I thought eating sprouts might be fun, and it fit well into my lesson about eating different parts of plants.

Now, standing in front of the classroom, the eight third and fourth graders helped me draw a plant and label the seed, roots, stem, leaves, stalk, flower and fruit. Then we discussed how we eat different parts of plants. Who knew carrots were roots? And that broccoli is a flower? This group of students is always enthusiastic and cheerful, largely due to a like-minded teacher, and everyone was shouting out ideas, all hand-raising forgotten.

Finally I handed out the Dixie cups with a scoop of lentil sprouts in them. The students examined them carefully, and a few announced they weren’t going to eat it. “Just try one. That’s all you have to do,” I told them. Their teacher and I started talking about gardening as the students contemplated this foreign food. I heard mutters of, ‘this tastes like dirt.’ We kept talking, and then I heard one student say, “I wish I could have some more.” I hadn’t even noticed that everyone had finished eating! I asked for a thumbs up/thumbs down vote on the sprouts. I got six thumbs up and two who were unsure. Despite that, when I passed around the Tupperware of sprouts every single student refilled their cup. Now they started chatting about how good they were, and asking questions about growing your own sprouts and the different types of seeds they could do it with. One student looked at me and said, “I wish I could have some more so I could take it home to show my parents.”

“Of course you can!” Thank God I brought enough! Every single student refilled their cup to take home to their families. As I was dishing out lentils for the third time, one of the quieter third-grade boys looked at me and said, “This is awesome.”

This simple comment made all of the begging, brown-nosing and bossing I’ve gone through to get this far completely worthwhile. With barely a push from me, students were eating by the handful something they’d never even heard of before! This lesson was fun, it was educational, and presented information they’ll be able to use for the rest of their lives. The administration has sworn to me that mine is a lost cause, and that I can't force healthy food upon the students. I’m thrilled to learn that there’s no need to force anything upon them, because they are the most open-minded members of this community. I just have to remember this enthusiasm as I jump through the next set of hoops that eastern Montana sets before me.