Teach the Fertile Crescent With a Croissant (Seriously.)

A Tasty Lesson Plan That Connects Mesopotamia to the Modern World

Here at Flocabulary, we’re all about the multi-sensory lesson plan. But our focus on music frequently leaves us guilty of neglecting one key sense: Taste! This lesson will allow students to activate their taste buds to think critically about the impact of the Fertile Crescent on our current society. (And listen to some music, too…)

Fertile Crescent Lesson Plan

Lesson Objective: Analyze the impact of the Fertile Crescent civilizations on modern society.

1. Hold up a croissant. Give a croissant, or piece of a croissant, to each student. Tell students that they can thank The Fertile Crescent civilizations for croissants. But they are going to need to work backward to figure out why. (For further mnemonic value, you may also want to mention that croissant simply means “crescent” in French.)

2. On the board, draw a crescent/croissant. Ask students to think backward and list the steps it took for the croissant to reach their desks. You could also skip this step, and project this image on the board.

3. Listen to the free Flocabulary song, “We’re In That Fertile Crescent.” Ask students to listen for contributions from the Fertile Crescent civilizations that helped the croissant get to their desks today.

4. When the song is finished, click on lyrics to learn more about the Fertile Crescent civilizations.

5. As a class, or in small groups, have students connect Fertile Crescent contributions to each step of the croissant chain of events. You can learn further about division of labor in our “Hunter and Gatherer” song.

Example:

6. Eat the croissant.

7. Using the song and clickable lyrics, discuss other contributions that the Fertile Crescent civilizations made to the modern world, outside the croissant chain of production.

And as a bonus, check out this excellent “Fertile Crescent” student music video by Todd LaVogue’s West Palm Beach class.