Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

5 minutes – Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge
10 minutes – Part B: Think, Puzzle, Explore
5 minutes – Part C: Growing Your Own
15 minutes – Part D: Compass Points
15 minutes – Part E: Designing Our Favourite Food Garden
5 minutes – Part F: A Collaborative Design
5 minutes – Reflection

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

Step 1.

Begin the lesson by introducing the idea of food security.

Ask students where they get their food from. Suggested answers could include:

A supermarket
A market
The garden
From a farm
Delivered from an online store

Explain that it’s important that people have access to enough affordable, nutritious food. This idea is called food security because access to food is secure. Invite students to suggest some reasons that people might have trouble accessing good quality, healthy food. Suggested answers could include:

It’s too expensive for them
They live too far away from a supermarket
A natural disaster (like a drought, storm or flood) has damaged the food

Step 2.

Explain that even though Australia is a wealthy country, lots of people still don’t have reliable access to food. Foodbank believes that more than four million Australians (18% of the population) have been in a situation where they have run out of food and have been unable to buy more, and 49% of charities say that the number of people who need their help accessing food continues to increase every year. This is what is known as food insecurity.

Invite students to pair up and consider some possible solutions to the problem of food insecurity. Invite them to share their thoughts by asking the following question:

How could we make sure that good quality, fresh food is affordable?

Hold a class discussion inviting pairs to share their possible solutions.

During this discussion, students might come up with solutions as wide as donating food that is not needed (see OzHarvest), teaching people to make the most of their food (see Youth Food Movement) or teaching people to grow their own food.

As an extension, invite students to also consider the following:

How could remote communities access fresh food?
What can we do to prevent and/or be ready for natural disasters?

Part B: Think, Puzzle, Explore

Step 1.

Distribute the Student Worksheet. Explain to students that they will work individually to write down their ideas about one way to combat food insecurity - by growing our own food.

Explain that one way we can make sure that we have access to food is to grow it ourselves and with our communities. Invite students to put up their hands if they grow some food at home, or if they ever go to a community garden.

Step 2.

Tell the class that you will be stepping them through each section of the 'Think, Puzzle, Explore' part of the Student Worksheet as a class, but encourage students to write their own individual responses as they go. Let students know that there are no wrong answers in this activity.

Step 3.

Begin with Think. Ask students what they think about the idea of growing some of their own food. Encourage them to write down dot points for anything that they think they already know about the topic.

Then move on to Puzzle. Ask students what questions or puzzles they have about growing food. Encourage them to write down dot points for anything that they are unsure about or don’t understand about growing food.

Finally, invite students to think about what they would like to explore further. Ask students about what ideas about growing food they might want to explore. Encourage them to write their ideas down in dot points.

Step 4.

Now, invite students to pair up with someone else and share their 'Think, Puzzle, Explore' answers. Students can add to more responses as they share.

At the end of the lesson, consider collecting student worksheets. They are great measures of students' existing understanding and interest in the topic and can help future lesson planning and assessment.

Part C: Growing Your Own

Step 1.

Ask students to think about what they usually eat and to quietly consider that if there was a garden at school or community garden that they could use, how much of their food they think they could grow themselves. After students have had some time to think, read through the statements below and invite students to raise their hand when they agree with a statement that you make:

I think I could grow one thing on my plate most days
I think I could grow a few things on my plate most days
I think I could grow about half of my food on my plate most days
I think I could grow most of the food on my plate most days
I think I could grow all the food on my plate most days

Explain to students that if they felt they could not grow much food that there is no shame in not being a natural green thumb. Growing food is a skill that you can always work on and continue to get better at over time.

Step 2.

Now, invite students to think about their favourite meal and write down what it is in the Student Worksheet. Then, invite students to try and work out all the ingredients. Encourage them to make a list of the ingredients. Tell students not to worry if they can’t think of all the ingredients, just list the ones they can remember.

Step 3.

Now, invite students to circle any ingredients that could be grown or raised in a garden at home or in the community. Suggested examples include:

If your favourite food was chips, then potatoes can be grown in a garden.
Lasagna has tomatoes which can be grown in a garden.
Cake has eggs, which come from chooks, which can be kept in a garden.
Curry has lots of vegetables and spices that can be grown in a garden.

Clarify that it’s also ok if nothing from their favourite meal can be farmed in a home or community garden. For example, grains like wheat and rice would be very difficult to grow in a garden in Australia.

Step 4.

Invite students to participate in a class discussion by sharing their circled ingredients. As students share, be sure to record the ingredients on one half of the whiteboard.

Part D: Compass Points

Step 1.

Invite students to consider the list of ingredients on the board. Suggest the following proposition: “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could design a garden that would grow all these things?” Explain that we might not be able to actually plant this garden, but we can still imagine it and draw a plan for how we would like it to look.

Explain that before launching into a new project, it’s a good idea to think about it to see if it's a good idea, and to work out what else we might need to find out before starting. Explain that one way to do this is with 'Compass Points'.

Step 2.

On the board, draw a compass. Label it N, E, S, W, and in the centre write ‘Our favourite food garden’.

Explain to students that in this activity, the letters stand for different perspectives or ways of looking at a topic. We’re going to make our way around the compass, collecting students’ ideas from each perspective.

Begin with E and work through all the letters in the following order. Invite students to respond, and write their responses on the board (near the corresponding letter) as you go.

E = Excited

What excites you about this idea?
What are the positives?
What aspects of our favourite food garden are really cool?
What are you looking forward to about designing it?
Imagine if it was finished and growing food - what are the things that you would be excited about?

W = Worrisome

What do you find worrisome about this idea?
What are the negatives?
What could go wrong?
What are the things that make you feel worried when you think about this garden?

N = Need to Know

Is there anything else that you need to know about this idea? What questions do you have?
What do you need to find out before we start?
Will you need to do some research about the plants and how to look after them?

S = Stance and Suggestion

What is your stance, and how do you suggest we move forward?
What is your opinion about our favourite food garden?
Do you think we should go ahead and design it?
Do you think we need to do more research beforehand?

Step 3.

Once all the compass points are complete, review the key points with students by reading some examples from each point.

This routine can be used to help students flesh out an idea or proposition and eventually evaluate it. It can be useful in exploring various sides and facets of a proposition or idea prior to taking a stand or expressing an opinion on it.

Part E: Designing Our Favourite Food Garden

Step 1.

Explain to students that they are going to draw a design for our favourite food garden. Each student will draw one or two plants and animals from the list on the board, and when they are all put together it will make a whole food garden.

Step 2.

Distribute the A3 sheets of paper and encourage students to make their drawings. Students may start drawing the plants and animals as if they are looking at them from the front, or as if they are looking at them from above. Both these options are fine. Encourage them to make their drawings take up the whole page. Explain, for example, that for this activity it’s actually preferable that their cauliflower is so big that its leaves go off the edge of the paper, rather than being a tiny little thing lost in the middle of the page. Students may also incorporate other elements such as flowers and insects into their drawings.

Encourage students to experiment with their drawing materials to create different txtures. Invite them ti think about how to make something look smooth vs gritty, soft vs prickly, shiny vs rough etc.

Step 3.

Allow students time to create their drawings. Once finished, invite students to pack away their drawing materials and to put their drawings to the side.

Part F: A Collaborative Design

Step 1.

Invite students to move their desks to the sides of the room, creating an open space of floor in the centre. Invite students to sit in a big circle. Use the coloured paper to create winding paths on the floor within the circle of students. Make sure to include a few branches so that there are multiple pathways that can be chosen.

Step 2.

Invite students two at a time, to stand up and collect their drawings. Invite the pairs to carefully walk along the yellow paths and find places to ‘plant’ their part of the garden. Then, invite them to sit back down in the circle. Repeat this process until everyone has placed their drawing in the garden.

Reflection

While students are still sitting in the circle around the garden design, invite them to imagine that their drawings have sprouted into a real garden. Invite them to imagine what it looks like, how it smells, and what sounds they can hear.

Ask students “Do you think you would enjoy spending time in this garden?” Invite them to share their responses and encourage them to explain their answers by asking “Why would you enjoy spending time in this garden, or why not?”

Differentiated Learning

Extension: Students who finish early can create a second drawing for the garden.

Provisions for Learning Support: Students requiring additional support can work in pairs during written activities.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Making a Food Art Garden

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