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Mandarin Class Makes Mooncakes
Mandarin students made mooncakes in anticipation of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival celebration.
In each of her sections, Mandarin teacher Gina Dong has been teaching students about the festival. Students learned the festival symbolizes family reunion, and on this day, all families will appreciate the fullest moon in the evening because it falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar. Mooncakes are a delicacy shared between friends and at family gatherings while celebrating the festival.
With this in mind, Dong welcomed each section of students to spend a portion of class time engaged in making mooncakes of their own. One student’s father prepared enough dough for everyone in the Middle School class, and at each gathering Dong demonstrated the process of flattening small rounds of dough into small pancakes, putting a spoonful of red bean paste in the center of the pancake, then gently manipulating the pancake to elongate the dough and form a ball. Students then dusted their bean paste-filled balls with flour to ensure they didn’t stick to the plungers used in the final step to stamp the dough balls and form each cookie with a Chinese character on top.
Through their work together, students and teachers learned these cookies were more complicated to make than they thought originally, but everyone managed to find their way and create at least one mooncake successfully. Dong collected the students' completed cookies, worked with Chef Zac and his Food Service team to get them baked and shared the delicious products with her charges in a subsequent class.
Francis W. Parker School educates students to think and act with empathy, courage and clarity as responsible citizens and leaders in a diverse democratic society and global community.