Keystage 2 - Food - Classroom ideas

Try these fun classroom ideas.
  

Travel bug

Intrepid explorer
You are an intrepid explorer, on a plant finding expedition. You discover one of the Plant Cultures plants and bring it back to the UK.

Write a short story to describe your journey and how you discovered the plant.

Make a fact sheet for your plant. Include pictures and details, such as what it can be used for and how to care for it.

The God of Agriculture
Balarama is the Hindu god of fertility and agriculture. Imagine that you are an Indian farmer; write a poem for Balarama asking for good conditions in which to grow your crops.

Markets old and new
Look for old pictures or paintings of your local town centre and market place. Take photographs of the area today. Compare them. Has it changed much?

Using your photographs paint pictures of areas or particular shops and stalls. You could put them in a time capsule and bury them in your school grounds. They will be a great record for future generations.

Have a feast

Book of recipes
The book of Recipes contains dishes such as kheer (milk pudding) and kheema (savoury mincemeat). It was made for the Sultan of Mandu, who ruled from 1469 - 1500.

It suggests that in order to get the sweetest milk for puddings, a well-bred cow should be selected and fed on sugarcane for weeks and her milk then used.

Try these recipes are some recipes from the Plant Cultures site for you to try:
Mango lassi
Crispy fried ginger and garlic
Mango lassi
How our Mum uses garlic in her cooking
Black pepper rice
Cooking rice

Find other recipes that use the Plant Cultures plants. Ask family and friends for suggestions.

What will you be having for lunch today? What do you think children in India will be eating?

Make an illustrated class recipe book.

Vegetarians
About a quarter of India's population is thought to be vegetarian.
  • Why do people choose to become vegetarian?


  • Have a look at the Vegetarian Society website.


  • Have a class debate about the pros and cons of being vegetarian. One half of the class could be for it, the other against. Research your arguments.

Health

Drugs
Opium poppies can be used to make illegal and highly addictive drugs. Their growth is strictly controlled.
They are also be used in medicine.
  • Research the benefits of this.


  • Make a table of advantages and disadvantages of growing opium.


  • Are there other plants on the Plant Cultures website that can be made into harmful drugs? Are there some that can be made into beneficial drugs? Investigate.

  • Design a leaflet to promote healthy eating and lifestyles.

Spices
During Elizabethan times, England bought spices from Arab traders at great expense. They were needed to preserve and flavour foods, especially meats, as there was no refrigeration.
Fed up with these high prices, English merchants decided to discover their own spice routes. They set sail to explore the great seas and foreign lands. Journeys were risky as their ships were in danger from pirates, enemies and bad weather.
  • Imagine that you are a young merchant embarking on your first journey to India to bring back precious spices.


  • Write a log of your voyage and a diary of your expedition.


  • Design a crest for your ship's flag. Decorate using some of the plants images from the Plant Cultures website. Perhaps you can use pictures of spices? Find materials to create a textured version?
Did you know?
In Elizabethan times spices were extremely valuable, they were like gold or oil today. Guards at the London docks had to have their pockets sewn up so that they couldn't pinch the peppercorns!

Drinks

  • Which tea varieties or brands do your friends and family drink?


  • Find out what they drink their tea in! Do they prefer a mug or a cup? Do they have a favourite drinking mug or cup? Record this information.


  • In the late 18th century a small box know as a caddy was introduced to store tea in. How do your friends and family store their tea?


  • As a class make charts to show how much tea is consumed in a day, a week, a month, a year! Which is the most popular variety or brand of tea? Do people prefer cups to mugs? Do people use caddies to store their tea in?