ABSTRACT
Laman challenges us to consider children’s cultural realities as a potential for classroom activity. A food truck constructed in a kindergarten classroom is an example of this potential being realized. It was part of a long-term project focused on the role of food in creating a sense of community. The food truck was constructed in the Dragonfly Room, one of 18 classrooms in a small, public magnet school in a large urban district under a court order to desegregate since 1978. The magnet focus of the school is project-based learning and systems thinking, both unique pedagogies that provide integrated, holistic, constructivist ways of organizing curriculum that is child-centered, including languages, location, and cultures. Literacy, math, science, social studies, and the arts all provide perspectives from which to learn and avenues for presenting that learning to a larger audience that extends beyond the classroom and even the school.
