OXNARD : Cooking Whets Pupils’ Appetite for Knowledge

Every Friday, students in Linda Murguia’s kindergarten class learn from their lunch.

Murguia, who has taught the bilingual class for 22 years at Oxnard’s Curren School, thinks students get more out of a subject when it’s incorporated into more than one lesson.

So from 9 to 10 a.m. every week, her 30 students gather around a table in a classroom and learn how to cook foods that range from cookies to peanut-butter sandwiches and ice cream.

“The goal of the class is to teach them how to cook, how to pour and mix as well as how to measure,” Murguia said. “Some kids have never been taught how to make anything.”

In addition, Murguia said, she illustrates the subject discussed in class that week with her luncheon choice.

This week, for instance, the class discussed the ocean, so Murguia taught students how to make tuna melt sandwiches. During the cooking process, Murguia and assistant Rosa Gonzales explained to students how tuna came from the ocean and ended up in a sealed can.

Students learned vocabulary as the teachers asked them to name cooking utensils in English and Spanish.

After combining tuna and mayonnaise in a clear glass bowl, Gonzales circulated the mixture around the table.

Each student was asked to mix the ingredients, then spread it onto slices of bread. While some were slow to warm up to the task, others quickly grabbed the bowl and the spoon and fiercely stirred the ingredients.

After students placed cheese on the top of the tuna, Gonzales put the sandwiches on a baking sheet and cooked them in a portable oven in the classroom.

Although Murguia received a $570 grant to buy the cooking utensils--which include a toaster and oven--the teacher often uses her own money to pay for food.

For the tuna lunch, Murguia spent $14 to buy bread, tuna, cheese and mayonnaise.

“It can be expensive, but it’s worth it,” Murguia said. “The kids really enjoy the program.”