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Where in the world

Lesson plan

English - KS1 & 2 Science, Geography, D&T (Cooking and nutrition)
Scottish -  Early, First and Second Level Science (Planet Earth) and Social Studies

  • Estimated time: 60 minutes
  • Location: Indoors
  • School term: All year round
  • Key stage(s): KS1, KS2
  • Subject(s): Science, Art&DT, Geography, Social Studies

Learning objectives

  • Understand that food is produced all over the world
  • Identify continents and countries on a world map
  • Begin to have an awareness that our food choices have an effect on the world environment
  • Begin to understand seasonality

Key vocabulary

Fruits, vegetables, sugar, balanced diet, local, seasonal, imported, processed, variety, healthy

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.

Useful background information

When food is produced and moved the resources needed to create the power to do so leave waste products like the gas - carbon dioxide. Some experts are convinced that this gas plays a big part in climate change. The amount of gas produced is called the 'carbon footprint'.
The transport of food, as well as the distance it has travelled is important to think about. A long boat journey produces less harmful waste gases than a shorter one by road.


Equipment

  • World maps
  • 3 examples of breakfast to display
  • A selection of fresh/tinned fruit/veg in labelled packaging – include some from the UK and some from world-wide locations
  • Seed packets to show sowing and harvest times
 

Differentiation

The extent of map work in food sorting (countries or continents)will be dependent on age/level of understanding.

Think about the 'carbon footprint' of food – is it better to eat what we can grow locally, or move food hundreds of miles around the world. Why should we think about this?

 

Assessment questions


  • Where do bananas come from?
  • Can we grow strawberries all year in the UK? 
  • Which breakfast is the best for the environment?