Teaching Sequence

10 minutes – Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge
40 minutes – Part B: How Am I Connected To Farming?
10 minutes – Reflection

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

Step 1.

Invite students to stand or sit around the board and to work as a class to create a mind map based on the term 'farming'. Students should add anything they can think of that relates to farming, including what they know about the types of plants and animals that are produced by farms (e.g. meat, dairy, wool/fleece, chickens, grains, fruit, vegetables), some of the activities that happen on farms (e.g. feeding, planting, mustering, milking, collecting eggs), and any other information about farming that they think is interesting or important. Encourage students to be inspired by what other students are adding to the mind map.

Once complete engage students in a discussion around the mind map, leading students to the conclusion that farming has many different aspects, that there are many different tasks that are required in farming, and that farming produces a wide range of products.

Part B: How Am I Connected To Farming?

Step 1.

Distribute a copy of the Student Worksheet to each student and invite them to work in pairs to answer the following question by creating their own mind map (students can use the Mind Map Farming Worksheet):

How am I connected to farming?

Students should work in their pairs to discuss this question, however each student needs to answer this question in their own words. As students work to answer this question, provide them with the following prompts:

Are you connected through the food you eat?
Are you connected through the clothes you wear?
What other products do you use that might have ingredients that come from a farm?
Do you grow any of your own food?
Do you have animals – like chickens – who provide you with food?
Do you – or have you once – had a farm or farmer in your family?

Once students have had the chance to create their mind maps, invite pairs to team up with another pair to share their ideas.

You could then invite students to participate in a class discussion around their ideas, inviting volunteers to share some of their mind maps with the class. Through your discussion, lead students to the idea that we are connected to farmers in many ways throughout our daily lives. For example:

Food – much of the food we eat has core ingredients that come from farms.
Fibres – many of the fibres we use and wear are grown on farms (such as cotton, wool/fleece, linen, and silk).
Cosmetics – many of the ingredients in things like shampoo or soap (such as rose or lavender) are grown on farms.

Step 2.

Explain to students that they will now be looking at how their food is connected to farms in more detail.

Break the class into pairs or small groups and give each group a copy of the My Sandwich Worksheet. Each group needs to cut out the parts of the sandwich. Groups need to then undertake research (online or in the library) to find out what each part of the sandwich contains (what ingredients it contains) and which of these ingredients originated on a farm. They need to add this information to the spaces provided on each part of the sandwich.

Allow students time to complete this activity.

Extension: Invite students to use the information collected to make a poster (or another type of graphic presentation) to share what they leant, with others.

Step 3.

Invite students to come together in a group to share what they found out about our connection to farming through food. You could pose the following questions:

How has this activity made you think about farming?
Can you think of a meal or a dish where none of your food comes from a farm?
What else would you still like to know about food and farming?

You could record students' thoughts and use some of these ideas to further guide discussion or inquiry.

Reflection

Invite students to work independently to answer the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What new vocabulary did you come across in this lesson?
What things did you learn in this lesson that were connected to what you already knew?
What things that you looked at in this lesson extended your thinking?

Extension

You could invite students to think about how they are connected to farming through fibres by completing the What am I Wearing Sheet.

Take It To The Show

Distribute the Treasure Hunt Sheet to students and invite them to find items at the Show that contain the ingredients on this sheet. Students need to take photos of these items and add them to the sheet, describing what it is and explaining what parts of this item contain the ingredients on the sheet (e.g. the bun contains flour which is made from wheat).

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?

The Show - How Is Your Food Connected to Farming?

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