Bring On The Freckle Juice!
What do the ingredients vinegar, grape juice, diced onion, mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper make when combined? Freckle Juice!
Each year third graders read Freckle Juice, a novel by Judy Blume, where the main character, Andrew, desperately wants to have freckles and goes to great measures to get them, including making (and drinking, ick!) Freckle Juice. As students follow Andrew through his journey of wanting to change the way God made him, they learn that there is no need, as each one of them is “fearfully and wonderfully made.”
As part of a culminating activity, the third grade students make their own Freckle Juice. Each student brought in an ingredient, and after reading the recipe out loud, Mrs. Andrews had the students add their ingredients to a mixing bowl. There were laughs, and comments of “Eww” and “Oh my gosh it smells!” as the students peered into the bowl.
When it was finished, Mrs. Andrews let all the students see the purple substance, with its blobs of white bouncing on top of its surface. All were impressed and disgusted.
Then came the true test... was anyone going to be brave enough to taste it? A few brave souls raised their hands and were given a small spoon and told to “just take a little.”
One student said, “It’s good!” while another simply laughed. Afterwards the students came up with words to describe the taste, or what they thought it tasted like as Mrs. Andrews wrote them on the board for all to see.
When asked what her favorite thing about doing this project each year, Mrs. Andrews said, “I love to see my students’ reactions when they taste or smell the freckle juice. They always make me laugh!”
We feel certain this is one project that the students will be talking about for quite a while!
