LAGUNA NIGUEL : Immigrant Students Get Taste of Americana

Students with limited English skills got a lesson in American traditional Thanksgiving food Wednesday during a feast at Niguel Hills Middle School.

The students, from Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador and Taiwan, were busy earlier this week under the tutelage of eighth-graders from an advanced home economics class. They helped stuff the bird, mash the potatoes and stir the cranberry sauce.

For some of the recent arrivals to the United States, it was the first time they had heard of pumpkin pie, let alone tasted it.

“They said, ‘Why would you take a pumpkin and eat it?’ ” said Laurie Cummings, the school’s language development teacher, who worked on the project with colleagues LaVonne Chesire and Kathryn Schindler.

“They first thought that pumpkin pie was gross,” Cummings added.

But the project was about more than cooking and eating.

Among other things, the 20 students learned about Native Americans, the Pilgrims and that turkey probably wasn’t served at the first Thanksgiving.

They also wrote down what they are thankful for.

“The idea is to open our culture to them,” said Schindler, who teaches social studies to students with limited English skills.

Words take on more meaning when they belong to an object a student needs to use, such as kitchen spatula, Schindler said.