United States Department of Agriculture
Natural Resources Conservation Service		 North Carolina Go to Accessibility Information
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Food from Soil

S.K. Worm says, "All of our food starts from soil!"

Objective

To create awareness that most food originates from the soil.

Materials

Plastic foods or pictures of food items children bring from home (supplemented by you).

Subject Areas

English, Reading, Math

Introducing the Activity

If using pictures, the day before the lesson, ask children to bring a picture of one food item - a fruit, nut, meat, egg, etc.

PROCEDURE

At lesson time, display the foods with identifying names on cards. Allow children to name their favorite food and lead them through the food's different forms back to the soil.

Example:
orange - tree - plant - soil
nut - tree - plant - soil
ham - hog - corn - soil
egg - hen - corn - soil

Using drawing or pictures cut from magazines, guide the children through the "egg to soil" process. Ask them to identify the figures with a naming word.

SUGGESTED QUESTIONS
  1. People eat eggs. Where do they come from?
  2. What do hens eat?
  3. Where does corn come from?
  4. What gives plants food to grow?
SUPPLEMENTAL ACTIVITIES

Ask them to identify beginning consonant sounds of the pictured food items and use consonant letters to spell beginning sounds.

Challenge them to classify and describe how the foods differ in shape, sizes, and colors.

Using the food item names, demonstrate upper and lower case form letters.

Have the children make up complete sentences using the food item names.

Using the process 1-to-1 correspondence, ask the children to construct sets of food items having more, fewer, and the same number of members.

Combine two sets to describe the operation of addition.

As it applies to the grade level, ask the children to write complete sentences using descriptive words that tell how, when, and where. Then, have them identify the subjects and predicates.

Using the same sentences, have them identify less common vowel sounds (pair, pear) (soil, boy).

Write the following sentences one at a time on the chalk board:
1. A fruit grows on a _____.
2. Plants grow in the _____.
3. We get our milk from _____.
4. Cows eat _____.
5. Plants grow in the _____.
6. We get bacon from _____.
7. Pigs eat ______.
8. Plants grow in the _____.

Answers

SUGGESTED QUESTIONS:
1. hens
2. corn
3. plants
4. soil

SUPPLEMENTAL ACTIVITIES:
1. plant
2. soil
3. cows
4. plants
5. soil
6. pigs
7. plants
8. soil

 

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