Follow chocolate from cacao pod to finished treat.
A GROWING UP NOURISHED FOOD + SCIENCE UNIT STUDY
Explore the science, history, geography, agriculture, and ingredients behind chocolate through a free hands-on chocolate unit study for kids designed to turn something familiar into a delicious learning adventure.
There’s a whole world inside a piece of chocolate.
START WITH SOMETHING FAMILIAR
Before chocolate becomes something we unwrap, it begins as a fruit growing on a tree. Follow cacao from pod to bean to chocolate while exploring the science, people, places, and processes behind one of the world’s most familiar foods.
from bean to bar
Discover where cacao grows and what a cacao pod looks like inside.
Grow
01
Explore the beans hidden inside the fruit and what happens after they're removed.
Harvest
02
Follow cacao through fermentation, drying, roasting, grinding, and chocolate making.
Transform
03
Use your senses to notice how ingredients, cacao percentage, and processing change the final chocolate.
Taste
04
SCIENCE
HISTORY + GEOGRAPHY
MATH + INVESTIGATION
What they'll explore
Explore cacao pod anatomy, fermentation, ingredients, and how cacao becomes chocolate.
Trace chocolate through place and time, from its early history in Mesoamerica to the chocolate we know today.
Compare cacao percentages, investigate labels, and practice using numbers in a real-world context.
FOOD + THE SENSES
Slow down to observe, smell, taste, compare, and describe different chocolates.
More than a science lesson.
husk
pulp
cacao bean
Cut open a cacao pod and you'll find something very different from the chocolate aisle: pulp-covered seeds tucked inside a colorful tropical fruit.
Kids explore the anatomy of cacao and discover how those seeds eventually become the chocolate they recognize.
Before the chocolate bar, there was a fruit.
meet the cacao pod
Travel through the history of cacao—from its significance among ancient Mesoamerican cultures to the changing ways chocolate was prepared, traded, sweetened, and eventually produced on a much larger scale.
CHOCOLATE HAS A STORY
Travel the history of cacao
TEST WHAT YOU KNOW
Bring everything together with interactive review and trivia.
SLOW DOWN + TASTE
Use sight, smell, touch, and taste to compare chocolate more intentionally.
DO THE CHOCOLATE MATH
Compare cacao percentages and put math into a real-world context.
BECOME AN INGREDIENT DETECTIVE
Read chocolate labels and compare what's actually inside.
Investigate it.
Measure it.
Taste it.
don't just read about it
Every ingredient
comes from somewhere.
And someone.
Chocolate gives kids an opportunity to think beyond the wrapper and to consider where cacao grows, who produces it, and why the choices behind our food matter.
FOOD CONNECTS US TO PEOPLE
CACAO + CHOCOLATE LESSONS
HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES
SCIENCE + HISTORY
MATH + LABEL INVESTIGATION
SENSORY CHOCOLATE TASTING
INTERACTIVE REVIEW game
A delicious rabbit trail, ready to explore.
INSIDE THE CHOCOLATE LAB
Hi, I'm Amy. I love taking something kids already encounter in everyday life and using it as the doorway to a much bigger conversation.
The Chocolate Lab turns a familiar treat into a chance to explore food, science, history, agriculture, and the people behind what we eat, because some of the best learning starts with a really good question.
FROM MY TABLE TO YOURS
Created by a dietitian & homeschooling mom.
Ready to Start Your Chocolate Adventure?
Follow cacao from pod to finished chocolate through science, history, geography, food, and hands-on learning.
“We also loved doing your mini chocolate unit study... We appreciate the investment of time and gift of the chocolate unit study!”
Melody S.
“One group created a short film acting out how to harvest and process cacao pods (using a football and Legos😍), one group designed a beautiful advertisement... and our third group featured a sock puppet play reviewing the history of chocolate and the MesoAmericans.”
