Cheese in America

Objectives:

• Students will be able to explain how cheese became popular food in America.

• Students will be able to describe how cheese is made.

• Students will be able to define pasteurization.

• Students will be able to name the ingredients in cheese and distinguish between hard and soft cheeses.

Suggested Grades:

4th Grade - 5th Grade - 6th Grade

Lesson Procedure:

Print the reading comprehension passage and questions (see below).

Students should read the passage silently, then answer the questions. Teachers may also use the text as part of a classroom lesson plan.

Lesson Excerpt:

Cheese is sour milk that has been preserved in a special way to keep it from spoiling. People have been making and eating cheese for thousands of years. Ancient Roman soldiers carried cheese with them when they went to war in the parts of Europe that are now England and Spain. The British brought cheese from England to the New World in the 1600's. They knew it would last throughout a long voyage without spoiling. Spanish explorers brought their own kind of cheese from Spain to South America and Mexico.

In the United States, cheese production is an important part of the food industry. Early American settlers made their own cheese or bought it from local dairies where it was made by hand. Today, most cheese is made in large factories by machines. Cheese in America is usually made from cow's milk, although it can be made from the milk of any animal. Farmers that raise cows for milk are called dairy farmers. Both dairy farms and cheese factories exist in many U.S. states. The top ten cheese-producing states are Wisconsin, California, New York, Minnesota, Idaho, Pennsylvania, Iowa, South Dakota, Washington and Ohio.

Continued...