Small Potatoes. A lesson on local staple foods
Day 1
Preschool-Kindergarten
Subjects:
Social Studies, Arts, Language Arts, Technology, Math, Science and Nutrition
Purpose:
Staple foods are food that make up the dominant part of a population’s diet. Staple foods are eaten regularly and supply a major part of a person’s nutritional needs.
Food staples vary from place to place, depending on the food sources available. In this lesson, by exploring foods around the world, we also look at geography and origins of food, and learn how through successful farming, we are able to plant foreign foods on local soil.
Duration:
Two Hours
Materials:
Tomato, banana, broccoli, okra
Felt world map. Make each continent a different color
Felt foods: Pineapple, Blueberry, Beans, Yams, Lettuce, Macadamia nut
Objectives:
The learner will:
Understand that foods comes from a farm.
Identify foods and continent of origin.
Make global connections to local foods.
Understand the nutritional value of food, and be able to sort food accordingly.
Circle Time:
Sing the “Old McDonald” song with students. Ask students if they know that their food comes from a farm.
Use the “MyPyramid ‘Go Fish’ cards” to demonstrate different types of foods. Ask students where each food comes from. For example, milk comes from a cow (not from the grocery store); eggs come from chickens (hens). Continue with this activity for all of the cards. For each food, discuss its color, size, shape, and texture. Use the “Agricultural Background Information” teacher resource to discuss the agricultural origins of food.
Now take a world view: bring in a tomato, a banana, broccoli, and okra.
Ask students to identify the vegetables and notice the beginning sounds. T is for tomato. B is for banana and broccoli. O is for okra.
Place one felt tomato under the letter board, and place each the vegetables on the felt map to show where they originated.
Today, we can find all of these vegetables at the supermarket, but long before transportation was so easy to come by, these vegetables were not accessible everywhere, and people relied on local food to survive. The food people grew became the food they ate. Staple foods are local foods, since they are easily accessible to people.
Using the felt board, add a staple food for the following continents:
South America- Pineapple
North America- Blueberry
Asia - Bean
Africa - Yams
Europe - Lettuce
Australia - Macadamia nut
What is local in our area? Have students been to the farmer's market? What do farmers grow in Ithaca today? Is what we grow today what was originally grown in Ithaca (ask them if they have seen broccoli, onions, or apples in the market- all foods with far away origins).
Teach the seven continents song. This song will begin all of the circle time sessions this week.
Song:
Old MacDonald: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rfmxx_72Coc
There Are Seven Continents: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NVrN-0aQV1o
Small Group Instruction:
Vegetables are healthy, but the way we prepare foods can affect how nutritious they are. Have a T-Chart with the words healthy and unhealthy on top. Give two versions of food based on the same item (potato chips and baked potato) and have children glue where the food belongs.
Cooking class:
Fingerling potatoes are native to Ithaca. Today, we will cook with local produce.
Objectives
The Learner Will:
Read and follow the recipe.
Work collaboratively with classmates to create a finished product. Learn culinary vocabulary such as coat, toss, brown, and combine.
Recipe:
This recipe makes 12 servings
6 pounds fingerling potatoes or small red potatoes 1/3 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons sea salt or salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 recipe Aioli Sauce
Aioli Sauce
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise or salad dressing 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup lemon juice
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
Directions:
1. Scrub the potatoes. Cut any large potatoes in half or thirds lengthwise. In a very large bowl combine the potatoes, olive oil, salt, and black pepper. Toss to thoroughly coat the potatoes.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Divide potatoes between two 15x10x1-inch baking pans. Place baking pan on another oven rack and roast potatoes for 1 to 1-1/4 hours or until potatoes are tender and browned. Serve potatoes with Aioli Sauce (see below). Makes 12 (1-cup) servings plus leftovers.
Aioli Sauce
1. In a medium bowl combine mayonnaise or salad dressing, Parmesan cheese, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and black pepper. Stir until mixture is well combined. Serve with Fingerling Potatoes (see above.)
Centers:
ART: Making potato prints. Cut the potato in half, or make shapes out of the potato half (star,
triangle, etc...) and dip in paint. Use as stamps to make prints.
WRITING: Students will draw a picture and write the word for each vegetable.
MATH: Sort and count different types of beans in groups of ten. Then, practice counting by tens.
BLOCK AREA: Provide children with tractors, farm animals and trucks to encourage creative play about farming.
SCIENCE: Amazon sells some inexpensive potato clock kits. http://www.amazon.com/4M-4568-
Potato-Clock/dp/B001T8OFQM. Great for helping children understand how food stores energy, and getting the kids to understand the notion of leaving a smaller carbon footprint.
SENSORY TABLE: Set up a potato-cleaning center. Scrub and clean potatoes to prep them for the cooking portion of the class.
Other Suggested Books:
Let’s Eat! What Children Eat Around the World by Beatrice Hollyer.
Assessment:
Observation of play and discussion. Assess students' writing.
School/Home Connection:
Notice what food your family eats for dinner. What foods come from a farm? How was the food prepared at home? Have your child help with cooking/cleaning/sorting food and talk about family recipes. Share where recipes are kept. Check out children's cook books from the library.
Homework:
Download the Preschool Math Cooking game "Tiggly Chef". It is free and will provide fun, educational material for your child. Use it with or without the manipulatives to add ingredients, and work on one-to-one correspondence.
Cross-Curriculum Extensions:
Take a field trip to a farm.
Plant a potato sprout and see what happens. Measure growth and keep a picture journal to track changes.
National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies
CULTURE
Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of culture and cultural diversity.
Human beings create, learn, share, and adapt to culture. Cultures are dynamic and change over time.
TIME, CONTINUITY, AND CHANGE
Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of the past and its legacy.
PEOPLE, PLACES, AND ENVIRONMENTS
Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of people, places, and environments.
The study of people, places, and environments enables us to understand the relationship between human populations and the physical world.
During their studies, learners develop an understanding of spatial perspectives, and examine changes in the relationship between peoples, places and environments.
INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY
Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of individual development and identity.
Personal identity is shaped by an individual’s culture, by groups, by institutional influences, and by lived experiences shared with people inside and outside the individual’s own culture throughout her or his development.
PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION, AND CONSUMPTION
Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of how people organize for the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
In exploring this theme, students confront such questions as: What factors influence decision-making on issues of the production, distribution and consumption of goods? What are the best ways to deal with market failures? How does interdependence brought on by globalization impact local economies and social systems?
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY
Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of relationships among science, technology, and society.
Science, and its practical application, technology, have had a major influence on social and cultural change, and on the ways people interact with the world.
GLOBAL CONNECTIONS
Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of global connections and interdependence.
In exploring this theme, students confront questions such as: What are the different types of global connections? What global connections have existed in the past, exist currently, and are likely in the future? How do ideas spread between societies in today’s interconnected world? How does this result in change in those societies? What are the other consequences of global connections?
References:
http://www.recipe.com/fingerling-potatoes/
http://www.learningtogive.org/lessons/unit103/lesson4.html
http://www.fao.org/docrep/u8480e/U8480E07.htm. Staple foods
http://bethsoria.edu.glogster.com/staple-foods-around-the-world/ staple foods poster http://knowledge.allianz.com/demography/health/?767/the-worlds-staple-foods