We had lots of fun celebrating Shrove Tuesday in our classroom by making, cooking and eating Pancakes!
We worked together to mix flour, eggs and milk together to create a batter which we later cooked in the staff room. Our favourite part of eating pancakes was eating them, however, and we chose which topping we would like on them - lemon and sugar, honey, syrup and chocolate spread. We thought our pancakes were "very yummy!"
We also learned about why we celebrate Shrove Tuesday. We discovered that, for Christians, it can be part of their preparation for Lent - the time when Christians remember the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert / wilderness as He prepared for Easter. We learned that, in the past, people gave up food like milk, sugar and eggs for Lent and used up these foods by making pancakes. We discussed that , sometimes, Christians today give up things for Lent too.
We also explored some of the different ways people celebrate Shrove Tuesday. We found out that ...
- some people have Pancake Races, dressing up in fancy dress clothes and running a race whilst flipping a pancake in a frying pan
- in Sweden , Shrove Tuesday is called 'Fettsdagen' which means 'Fat Tuesday.' People eat a pastry called Semla, not pancakes
- in Brazil people celebrate Mardi Gras and watch huge carnival processions in the streets. We listened to some Carnival music in our classroom as we worked too!
- in Estonia, Shrove Tuesday is called 'Vastlapaev.' People eat pea soup and cream buns called Vastlakukkel
- in Iceland, Shrove Tuesday is called 'Sprengidagur' which means 'Bursting Day.' People eat salted meats and peas
What a fun time we had celebrating Shrove Tuesday in our classroom!
