A total of 12 special lessons will be held for fourth graders with the aim of helping them develop healthy bodies and rich minds and humanity. Rather than simply listening and memorizing, the content will be fun and educational through experience and fieldwork, including the Japanese food culture of "umami" and how to select ingredients.

The first class of the year was held on April 16, 2024. Over the next year, we will be learning about food through the five senses.

The first theme is "sense of smell."
First, the children were given a cup of vanilla beans, each with a lid covering the contents.
The children made small holes in the lid and used their sense of smell to smell the confections. "It's vanilla ice cream!" and "It tastes like cookies!" they exclaimed, delighted by the sweet aroma unique to vanilla beans.
At the same time, we also heard honest and open-minded opinions such as, "It smells like gasoline" and "It seems bitter."

The children seemed nervous at first as the atmosphere was different from usual classes, but from the very first lesson they were able to put into practice the most important aspect of food education - writing down what they felt in their own words.

The theme of the second session, held on April 22nd, was "sight, hearing, and touch."
This time we studied using bananas, crackers, and consomme soup.

Using unripe, blue-green bananas and the yellow bananas we are used to seeing, the children shared how they imagine their tastes based on their appearance, and the differences in the texture they feel in their hands and on their tongues.
The children looked worried at the blue-green bananas, saying, "They look bitter..." and their hunch was correct. As expected, the bananas were bitter and hard, but the children seemed to enjoy the new experience.

In the hearing experiment, the children focused on the sound of their friends eating crackers and distinguished the difference between the sound of the cracker being bitten and the sound of it being chewed.

Finally, we will taste consommé soup at different temperatures.
The children commented that the heated soup was "richer in flavor" and "more delicious!" than the room temperature soup, but in fact the flavor was the same.
I learned that the taste of food changes depending on the temperature.

The theme of the third event, held on May 13th, was "Rediscovering Taste."
This time, we studied using aqueous solutions that were seasoned with "salty," "sour," "bitter," and "sweet."

The four types of water provided are colorless, transparent, and odorless, and contain only small amounts of certain ingredients compared to the large amount of water, so it requires great concentration to distinguish them.
It is said that judgment can change depending on psychological states such as tension and physical condition, so the children closed their eyes while tasting the solution.
The children showed keen reactions to the salty and sour tastes, saying, "It's seawater!" and "It tastes like lemon water!", but when they saw the solution containing the unfamiliar "bittern," they frowned and said, "What's this?!"
Compared to adults who are accustomed to bitter tastes through the consumption of luxury items such as alcohol and coffee, children are more sensitive to bitter tastes than adults because their defense instinct is activated when they encounter bitterness.
At this time of year, when even subtle flavors can be fully appreciated, it is important to develop a good sense of taste.

The theme of the fourth session, held on June 6th, was "Things that interfere with your sense of taste."
This time, we will be experimenting using mineral water, carbonated water, and mixed juice.

Things that interfere with taste include stimuli from the food itself and external stimuli such as appearance and sound. First, they compared mineral water and carbonated water, and shared their impressions and the strength of the stimulation. This was the first time the children had tried pure carbonated water, not something with a flavor like cola. As soon as they took a sip, they looked displeased and exclaimed, "It's bitter!" and "It tingles!"

Next, we experienced interference from external stimuli (noise).
We shared the difference felt when tasting mixed juice while listening to noise through headphones, and when concentrating only on the taste without any distractions. When trying to guess which fruits were used in the mixed juice, the correct answer rate was higher when concentrating than when tasting while listening to noise, and we were able to experience the theme of "things that interfere with taste" firsthand.