Introduction
From a group discussion, make a list of breakfast ingredients your class eat regularly. Find out what is already understood about the food we eat and where it comes from.
Activities
1. Display some typical breakfasts
You could include a commercially produced breakfast cereal, a fruit salad, toast and toppings. By looking at the lists of ingredients and a group discussion find out:
• What is it made of and what (if anything) has had to be done before we eat it? This is known as processing.
• The country where it is grown – can it be grown in the UK? If yes - what time of year?
• How does it get to us? (Plane, boat, lorry). Introduce the words: local and imported.
2. Sorting salads
Display a selection of fruit and/or vegetables. By looking at packaging, labels and by doing research, locate the origin of a chosen item, and place it on a world map.
• What can be noted about the distribution of placed items worldwide?
• Are there places where many types of food are grown? Are there parts of the world where no food, that has been sorted, is grown?
3. What’s the weather like?
Research temperature and rainfall in the located countries. Feedback findings to the group.
4. Make a meal of it
Select food items grown in the UK. What meal could you plan to make with them?
Plenary
Taste some exotic fruits and describe them. Taste some locally grown and if possible freshly picked fruit and describe it. (Remind children to wash hands first).
Start a growing project and observe food growing throughout a year - aim to cook your own seasonal meal.