← For Teachers
🌍 Country of the Week · A Spin the Globe Teacher's Guide
Armenia
ArmeniaAsia · This week's dish comes from Yerevan
About Armenia
Armenian food is among the world's oldest, built on lavash bread, grilled meats (khorovats), bulgur, and an abundance of herbs and fruit. Ancient, generous, and preservation-savvy, it centers the family feast.
Lavash was inscribed by UNESCO in 2014, and the inscription describes the whole practice: groups of women rolling the dough thin, stretching it over an oval cushion and slapping it onto the wall of a tonir, the conical clay oven sunk into the ground. It dries flat and keeps for months, and it is laid across the shoulders of newlyweds as a wish for prosperity.
The apricot carries Armenia's name in Latin, Prunus armeniaca, but genetic work points to Central Asia rather than Armenia as the centre of origin, and the name reflects the route by which the fruit reached Europe. What is not in doubt is how deep it runs here: it is the national fruit, its colour sits on the flag, and the duduk is carved from apricot wood.
The wider picture: From street-cart woks to slow monastery kitchens.
This week's dish: Spas
A warming yogurt-and-wheat soup fragrant with mint and herbs, a soothing Armenian everyday bowl.
Serves 4 · Prep 15 min · Cook 30 min · Difficulty: easy
See the full recipe: ingredients, steps and dietary swaps →
Grown-up jobs: any step that uses a hot stove, oven, boiling water, or a sharp knife is for a teacher or parent. Children can measure, mix, and assemble.
Discussion prompts
1. Find Armenia on a world map or globe. It sits in Asia. Which oceans or neighboring countries does it touch, and roughly how far is it from where you live?
2. Spas comes from Yerevan, in Armenia. Read its ingredient list together. Which of those foods do you think are grown or raised nearby, and how might the country's climate and landscape explain that?
3. Read the short story behind Spas. How have the people, trade routes, and history of Armenia shaped what ends up on the plate there?
4. Compare Spas to a dish your own family cooks. What is similar, what is different, and what one question would you ask a family in Armenia about how they make and share it?
5. After you cook Spas, add Armenia to a classroom map and give it a stamp. Write down one fact about its food or geography that you did not know this morning.
🌍 Spin the Globe · Geography through food · spintheglobeofficial.com/for-teachers