Sweet and sour

My students will soon read a novel called Beacause of Winn Dixie. In the book, there's a candy that has a peculiar taste.

"There's a secret ingredient in there,"Miss Franny said.

"I know it," I told her. "I can taste it. What is it?"

"Sorrow," Miss Franny said. "Not everybody can taste it. Children, especially, seem to have a hard time knowing it's there."

"But how do you put that it in a piece of candy?" I asked her.

"That's the secret," she said. "That's why Littmus made a fortune. He
manufactured a piece of candy that tasted sweet and sad at the same time."

I was worried about the concept of a candy embodying both sweetness and sorrow being too abstract and romantic for my monkeys to grasp. But I was wrong, very wrong. Here are some quotes I've uncovered from their life journals:

"My sister got my parents mad and moved out. They are nice to me but if I do anything bad at school or something they get furious at me because they have no one else to be mad at." - Kate

"I like I have no one to go to. Inside of me everyday is like hell for my heart! My heart needs love and it's dieing without it."- Evelyn

"Well I am doing good right now. PS. but WOW! some of my classmates are going through a lot of things." - Jose


Lesson plan: Describe a food that symbolizes something more than just food, like in Winn Dixie. It can be a meal that reminds you of a person, another time, or place.
Extra Credit: Bring enough of the food you wrote about for everybody in the class to sample, including Ms. Won.