Nourishing Students: Early Learners
Lesson Plans
GradesK, 1, 2Science, Mathematics
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Provided by Center for Ecoliteracy
What it is
- In this collection of units from the Center for Ecoliteracy, students will become familiar with different edible plants through counting and measurement, games, art projects, stories, taste tests, and more.
- Each unit also has a bilingual take-home page that includes activities, recipes, and book recommendations for families to continue learning at home.
Teaching tips
Positives
- The resource includes materials to be sent home to families, explaining what students are learning in the classroom and how families can support. This is a great way to involve families as stakeholders in their students' education.
- These activities do a great job of engaging students with activities that involve fine motor skills, opportunities for movement and hands-on learning, and chances for students to express their creativity.
Prerequisites
- Some activities require or suggest the use of children's books that teachers will need to acquire before teaching the lesson.
- Before implementing taste-testing portions of the units, teachers should be aware of any food allergies in the class.
- Teachers should also be aware of students with sensory processing difficulties or differences that may make taste-testing portions more challenging and any activities that require touching uncomfortable, especially the activity asking teachers to demonstrate pressure on students' palms.
Differentiation & Implementation
- These units include bilingual components that can be implemented in bilingual classrooms, Spanish classes, or ELL classes.
- When implementing the avocado resources, teachers may want to implement the Graph an Avocado activity before the other activities, as the data will not be as interesting if all students have not had the same experience with avocados at the time of graphing.
- If any of the suggested books are available in the school library, teachers can collaborate with library media staff to have these books on display during the class's library time.
- To build students' readiness for understanding climate change and its impacts, teachers can highlight that different fruits and vegetables can only grow in certain climates. This will build background knowledge for students to understand some of the agricultural impacts of climate change.
- Teachers can also draw students' attention to the fact that crops need stable amounts of water, sunlight, and nutrients to grow, which will build their background knowledge to support understanding of the effects of drought and nutrient depletion on agriculture.
From the scientist review
In these lessons, students will learn about different fruits and vegetables grown in California, including avocados, beans, carrots, cilantro, and radishes. Each fruit or vegetable has its own unit with an overview of the food, activities, gardening, and tasting ideas, as well as bilingual resources for families. The activities allow students to explore and learn about each piece of food and begin to understand where our food comes from and how it depends on the weather, climate, and environment. The information presented is accurate, and this resource is recommended for teaching.
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