A project on vegetables provides lots of opportunities to explore growth and healthy living, and may inspire some children in your setting to develop green thumbs!
ADULT-LED ACTIVITIES
Fruit and veg.
Some children confuse fruits with vegetables, so start your project with a sorting activity.
Key learning intentions
To sort fruits and vegetables
To use comparative language
To investigate objects using their senses
Adult:child ratio 1:1
Resources.
* A wide variety of real fruits and vegetables - the children need to be able to see, touch, smell and taste * Three baskets (or boxes), one large and two small
Preparation
* Put all the fruits and vegetables in the large basket.
* Make two labels, one 'fruit', the other 'vegetables'. Cut some examples of fruit and vegetables out of magazines and stick them attractively around their respective words.
* Attach the labels to the two smaller baskets.
Activity content
* Ask the children to wash their hands and explain why it is important to have clean hands when handling food.
* Ask the children what is in the basket and if they can help sort the fruits and vegetables into the two labelled baskets.
* Support children in their efforts. Let them take their time and invite them to touch the fruits and vegetables. Pineapples, for example, are very interesting to touch and smell.
* Listen to and record the children's descriptive language about the vegetables.
EXTENDED LEARNING.
Key vocabulary.
Vegetable, fruit, sort, touch (feel), look, smell, colour, shape, big/small, heavy/light, bigger/smaller than, heavier/lighter than
Questions to ask.
Which is the basket for the fruits/ vegetables? How do you know? What is that fruit/vegetable called? What colour/ shape is it? Can you find another vegetable/fruit that is the same colour/ shape? Would you say it is heavy or light? Can you find another fruit/ vegetable that is heavier/lighter, bigger/ smaller than that one? Does it smell?
Follow-up activities
* Taste some of the fruits and vegetables at circle time. This provides a further opportunity for classification.
* Turn your role-play area into a fruit and vegetable shop to extend opportunities for sorting. Encourage children to set up the shop.
* Encourage the children to paint their favourite vegetable and display the paintings. Alternatively, suggest that they paint posters for their shop.
* Compare fresh, frozen, canned, raw and cooked vegetables.
GO FOR GROWTH.
Explore growth by planting beans.
Key learning intentions.
* To develop confidence in writing for a variety of purposes
* To make simple estimates
* To explore growth
Adult:child ratio 1:4 (planting the beans); 1:1 (keeping the bean diaries)
Resources
* Bean seeds * soil/compost * plant pots * trowels * watering cans * water * sticky labels * paper to make a book for each child (diary) * pencils * colouring pencils
Preparation
* Fill one of the sand trays with compost and place a table nearby.
* Make a bean diary for each child with one page for each observation - four observations are usually more than enough. The beans tend to grow very quickly, so make the diaries quite big (A4) so children have space to reflect the extent of the growth in their drawings.
ACTIVITY CONTENT.
Planting
* Ask the children to write their name on a sticky label first (their hands will be covered in soil later!).
* Explain the purpose of the activity and ask them to fill their pots with compost, plant seeds in them and place the pots on the table. What do they think will happen when they plant their seed?
* After planting their seeds, ask the children to attach their sticky label on their pot, and water the seeds.
* Alternatively, if you would like to see the roots grow, 'plant' the seeds in a jam jar with blotting paper. Again, this will need watering.
Bean diaries
* Ask the children to draw their pot in their book soon after they plant the seeds. Write a sentence for them such as 'I planted a bean seed on Wednesday'. Talk about how they are going to look after their seed to encourage it to grow.
* Once the seeds show signs of germination, ask the children to draw their pots again. Ask them what they think will happen next and record their predictions in their diaries.
* Revisit the diaries again as the plant appears. Encourage the children to make observational drawings of the flowers and measure their plants.
* Unless you have unlimited space, send the bean seeds home before they grow too tall to be planted out in the children's own gardens. Ask the children to bring in the beans if their plants produce any!
* To ensure that the seeds are watered regularly, put out a watering can filled with water at the beginning of each session and encourage each child to water their seed before choosing what they would like to do. Don't be tempted to take on the watering yourself - the children will miss out on a vital aspect of plant care.
EXTENDING LEARNING.
Key vocabulary.
Bean, seed, plant pot, compost, trowel, water, grow, light, draw
Questions to ask.
What do we need to plant a seed? What is this called (hold up trowel)? What do we need to do now the seeds have been planted? What has happened to your seed? How tall do you think your plant is? How tall do you think your plant will grow? What do you think will happen next?
Follow-up activities
* Look at the Nursery World poster and talk about where vegetables grow, where we buy them and how we prepare them for eating.
* Visit a supermarket or open-air fruit and vegetable market.
* Plant a few vegetables and maybe some herbs for the children to tend.
(See the Nursery World poster for useful gardening websites and books.)
* Plant tomatoes outside, if it is the summer. Small groups of children could take turns to water them.
* Make leek and parsnip savoury cakes (see the Nursery World poster).
* Read stories such as Jasper's Beanstalk by Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen (Hodder Children's Books, 4.99) to develop children's understanding of growth and to sustain their enthusiasm for planting vegetables. (See the Nursery World poster for suggested stories.)
* Incorporate growing vegetables into your movement sessions. For example, mime Jack climbing his beanstalk.
* Learn rhymes such as 'Mary Mary' and 'Dingle Dangle Scarecrow' (see the Nursery World poster).
CHILD-INITIATED LEARNING.
Encourage the children to develop their own ideas and interests across the curriculum by adding topic resources to the basic provision.
OUTDOORS.
Additional resources.
* Wheelbarrows, trowels, watering cans, spades, empty pots, gardening gloves, trugs, rakes, planting labels
* If possible, provide a digging area or vegetable plot. Alternatively, fill an old plastic paddling pool or similar with compost
* Hide different-sized stones in the compost that the children can dig for and remove to make the soil 'good' and ready for planting
* Wellington boots, if necessary
* Create a garden centre in an outside house or shed in the garden, with empty vegetable seed packets, plant pots and gardening tools 'for sale'.
Include some (hardy) gardening books if you can
Possible learning experiences
* Developing hand/eye co-ordination and gross motor skills using gardening equipment.
* Developing understanding of the life cycle of plants through role play.
* Taking turns with and sharing equipment. You might want to make a rule, for example, that only four children can dig at any one time.
* Learning to play alongside others.
* Interacting with peers.
* Taking on roles in the garden centre.
* Counting and comparing, for example, stones in the compost.
The practitioner role
* Model vocabulary such as dig, trowel, seed, plant, germinate, light and names of vegetables.
* Look at books with children, especially if they want to find out specific information. Show them how to use a reference book and use the correct vocabulary such as 'contents page' and 'index'.
* Ask questions about what the children are doing, such as, 'What are you planting?', 'What did you buy at the garden centre?', 'How are you going to look after your vegetables?'
MALLEABLE MATERIALS.
Additional resources.
* Compost. Try mixing it with lots of water one day on the messy table, or in one of the sand trays. Put down a plastic sheet!
* Use brown playdough (soil), plant pots, twigs and green playdough (for the leaves) to make growing 'plants'
* Coloured playdough, plasticene and clay to make models of vegetables
* Clay to make vegetables
* Do some vegetable printing
Possible learning experiences
* Investigating the properties of compost.
* Experimenting with water.
* Using materials such as playdough to express ideas about growth and vegetables.
* Developing colour recognition through matching paint and vegetable colours.
* Exploring the properties of clay.
* Recognising and recreating simple patterns, including repeat patterns.
The practitioner role
* Accept each child's efforts as valid learning experiences. If they tell you they have made a carrot, then that is what they have made!
* Model appropriate language such as vegetable names and colours.
* Model skills such as rolling playdough in the palms of your hands to make peas, for example.
* Let inexperienced children focus first on the printing before moving on to exploring pattern. Match paint colours to the vegetables and cut the vegetables in interesting ways for printing.
WATER AREA.
Additional resources.
* Plenty of watering cans, pots, plastic tools and plastic vegetables to encourage role play
* Dirty real vegetables with brushes to clean the soil off. Washing-up brushes with long handles are ideal
* Display lots of laminated pictures of vegetables on the wall by the water tray
Possible learning experiences
* Consolidating learning about growth and care of vegetables.
* Understanding the importance of health and hygiene when preparing vegetables for consumption.
* Using with confidence terms such as heavy/light, float/sink, heavier/lighter than.
* Using terms such as empty and full.
The practitioner role
* Refer to the pictures on the wall and ask the children the names of the vegetables. Can they find that vegetable in the water tray?
* Explain the necessity of cleaning vegetables before eating them.
* Do a floating and sinking experiment with light and heavy vegetables - potatoes will sink, but broccoli florets will float, for example - and model appropriate language.
* Ask the children to fill a watering can and see if they understand the terms full and empty. Model filling a watering can for them.
* Engage in positive role play with the children, for example, 'I'm going to grow a potato in my vegetable garden. I wonder what I shall need to do first.' Let the children tell you their ideas.
* Put just potatoes in the water tray one day and teach the counting rhyme 'One potato, two potato', make a counting line and model one-to-one correspondence when counting the lines.
* Make vegetable soup with some of the cleaned vegetables.
