Teacher/Parent Corner
Incorporating nutrition concepts into other curriculum objectives and daily activities can be a fun and educational experience. Many activities can be an excellent addition to any social studies, science, language arts, or math topic.
Topic: Pumpkins
Objectives
- To discuss the lifecycle of plants.
- To demonstrate that there can be two food groups in one plant.
- Discuss the benefits from eating vegetables for our bodies.
- Examine what Vitamin A from the pumpkin flesh and zinc from the pumpkin seeds do for our bodies.
- Examine the decomposition of a plant.
- Encourage students to try new foods by investigating the various uses of pumpkin and pumpkin seeds.
- Discuss food traditions and culture through the significance of pumpkin at holidays.
Activities
- Read the book "Too Many Pumpkins" By Linda White. Copy the lifecycle of a pumpkin activity sheet and ask the students to draw the sequence of each life cycle.
- In your science centre, place a pumpkin in a jar and place a lid on it. Put magnifying glasses, paper, crayons, etc and have the students keep track of the decomposition of the pumpkin.
- In your science centre, plant pumpkin seeds in pots with dirt. Put paper, crayons, and the number of days it has been growing by the plant. Encourage the students to keep track of the growth of the pumpkin plant.
- Read the book "How Many Seeds In A Pumpkin" by Margaret McNamara. Using baked pumpkin seeds as math manipulativies, encourage students to group seeds together to learn to count by ones, twos, fives, tens, etc.
- Read the history of the pumpkin in traditional Thanksgiving stories. Discuss some of your students family traditions at Thanksgiving.
- Learn about what Vitamin A does for our bodies by completing the activity sheet pertaining to Vitamin A.
- Learn about what the mineral zinc does for our bodies and complete the activity sheet pertaining to zinc.
- Make roasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin loaf, and mini pumpkin muffins and using the Food Taster Investigator sheet, ask the students to try these new foods. Send a copy of the included recipe home for students to make with their parents.
- Send home the pumpkin newsletter helping to educate parents about the importance of eating vegetables and seeds as a part of a balanced diet.
- Complete the activity sheet discussing the food sources that provide us with more than one food group.
Look for more activities that can be included into the curriculum including:
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