The unit we did with our third graders was based around the novel The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Catling. It is a great story about a young boy who loves chocolate so much that one day everything that touches his lips turns to chocolate, including his mother! This story is not only fun to read, but it teaches a lesson about being too greedy and to be careful what you ask for. 

Our "Chocolate Touch" unit was cross-curricular including subject areas such as math and language arts. Our third graders were starting their unit in math class on graphs and charts, so we were able to incorporate The Chocolate Touch into this by having the students conduct surveys.  The students surveyed other classroom to find out their favorite type of chocolate.  The students then graphed their results on a software program titled "The Graph Club" by Tom Synder. We also had our students using technology for many language arts activities including creating Venn diagrams to compare and contrast two stories, writing and illustrating a story, researching facts about chocolate and then creating a PowerPoint presentation, and finally, creating a chocolate cookbook which enhances their learning of steps in a process. Overall, the students are meeting curriculum benchmarks and standards while enjoying chocolate at the same time!