Project Overview

1^st and 2^nd grade students from the College School in St. Louis, Missouri, created this tiny, beautiful book about pesto as part of a study of sustainability and local foods.

Students grew their own basil, made pesto and made pasta from scratch. They used as many local ingredients as possible including eggs, nuts and garlic. As a way of making connections between school and families, each student brought home a bag of fresh basil. Many families used the basil in recipes, which were then shared in class.

Beautiful and Yummy describes their process, recipes for making pasta and pesto, other uses for basil and the reasons why they focused on sustainable local foods. In explaining their process, the two students who wrote the introduction said, “It just tastes better when you grow it yourself. It is fresh!”

The book also includes students written poems about basil, an introduction by the 2^nd graders, and reflections by the teachers regarding the goals of the project and what students were learning. The teacher reflections make this an unusual product – with a good deal of the book dedicated to explaining the philosophical and pedagogical approach of the school through the explication of the reasoning behind the project and all the wide range of things students learned from the project.

The book was edited by a pair of 1^st graders and a pair of 2^nd graders, who edited the text, selected photographs and picked the title.

The College School has a long-time affiliation with the Reggio Emilia preschools in Reggio Emilia, Italy, schools that focus on high quality art studio environments for young children that encourage creativity and expressive cooperation.

Students sold these books, raising money for the local newspaper’s annual “100 Neediest Cases” campaign. The original dimensions for this product were 6 ½ by 4 inches.