Join us on January 19 as we celebrate National Popcorn Day! Buttered, salted, kettled, drizzled with caramel, popcorn is one of those snacks perfect anytime, anywhere. It’s great on the go, in the theater, or in your living room! Just be prepared to dig some of it out of your teeth.
I’m actually a huge fan of Weekly Popcorn Day. My Aunt and Uncle were very busy at their local church on Sundays and there just wasn’t time for anyone (read my aunt!) to cook dinner. Somewhere in their marriage, they decided that popcorn on Sundays would be the meal of choice. As I recall, they may have eaten it like cereal with milk and sugar.
As a child, I thought this was the best thing ever. My parents didn’t agree, though 🙁
They didn’t have fancy microwave popcorn but made it on the stove.
History of National Popcorn Day
Did you know that the corn we eat and the corn we pop are two different varieties of maize? In fact, the corn you’d find on your dinner table is most likely unable to pop at all!
Only one variety of corn is able to become popcorn: Zea mays everta. This particular corn variety has small ears, and the kernels burst when exposed to dry heat.
In 1948, small heads of Zea mays everta were discovered by Herbert Dick and Earle Smith in the Bat Cave of west central New Mexico. Ranging from smaller than a penny to about two inches, the oldest Bat Cave ears were about 4,000 years old. Several individually popped kernels were also discovered, which have since been carbon dated and shown to be approximately 5,600 years old.
There’s also evidence of early use of popcorn in Peru, Mexico, and Guatemala, as well as other places in Central and South America. Aztecs used popcorn to decorate their clothes, create ceremonial embellishments, and also for nourishment.
Native Americans have also been found to consume and utilize popcorn in their day to day lives. In a cave in Utah, thought to be inhabited by Pueblo Native Americans, popcorn has been found that dates back to over 1,000 years ago. French explorers who traveled to the new world discovered popcorn being made by the Iroquois Natives in the Great Lakes region. As colonists moved around North America, and as the USA came to be, many people adopted popcorn as a popular and healthy snack.
(adapted from https://nationaltoday.com/national-popcorn-day/)
10 Popcorn Day Activities
Thank you to Leslie F, a teacher from Concord, Illinois, who sent the following suggestions for Popcorn Day Activities:
1. Stringing Popcorn: These can be hung outside for birds to eat
Need: sewing needles, string, popcorn
2. Guess the Amount Filll container with kernels and have students guess)
Need: popcorn kernels, container
3. Popcorn Air Hockey: Can you “volley” the kernel back and forth 20 times without letting it fall?
Need: flat surface (table), straw (to blow), coffee stirrers (as paddles) or hands (as paddles)
4. Popcorn Relay Race
Need: popcorn, spoons
5. Popcorn Basketball: Can you flick a piece of popcorn into the basket?
Need: popcorn, baskets (i.e. muffin tins, small cups), backboards (wall, cardboard)
6. Popcorn word search (puzzle maker)
Use these words: popcorn, pop, kernel, explode, heat, moisture, grain, snack, crunchy, butter, oil, salt, fiber, bag, hull
7. Write a Popcorn Haiku (5, 7, 5 syllable pattern poem): Like this!
Oil, kernels, heat, time
Many loud explosions heard
Pop, crunch, snack time. Yum!
8. How many words can you make from this phrase?
“Fresh hot popcorn”, “Popcorn tastes good”, “I like popcorn”, “Hot buttered popcorn”
9. Popcorn coloring pages
10. Read facts about popcorn and write about the history of popcorn
