Garden Lessons: Food Quilts (1st & 2nd Grade)

Grade(s): 1st & 2nd

Lesson Objective(s): Students make a “Food quilt” of fruits and vegetables they want to try, and fruits and vegetables they’ve tried that they want to grow in the garden

Supplies Needed

• Book: “Eating the Alphabet” by Lois Ehlert

• Postcard or flashcard sized cardstock

• markers

• glue sticks

• seed catalogs

• scissors

• either 2 medium-sized poster boards or one large poster board.

• Snack

• Harmonica

Introduction:

• Read “Eating the Alphabet” by Lois Ehlert

• Explain what we’re doing today:

• We grow yummy food at the garden so people like YOU in our schools can eat it!

• In our book, we looked at all sorts of things that can be grown. Some of them we may have tried, like strawberries, and some we may have not tried, like kohlrabi.

• We’re going to make a class “food quilt” today of some of these fruits and vegetables.

Activity (15 mins)

• Instructions:

• Each student gets 2 cardstock postcards, a seed catalog, some markers, and a glue stick

• Students work individually to find from the seed catalog:

  • one thing that they HAVE tried and LIKED. On this card students write the name of the fruit/vegetable at the top, and why they like it (for 1st graders, just write the name of the fruit/vegetable)

  • one thing that they HAVEN’T TRIED but WANT to try. On this card student write the name of the fruit/vegetable on the top, and why they want to try it. (for 1st graders, just write the name of the fruit/vegetable)

• Once they are finished they can glue it to the posters, which read at the top:

  • “I want to try….”

  • I like…”

Wrap up (5 Mins):

• Student glue their cards onto the class “quilt”

• try a snack

Classroom Extensions:

Before: Make a list as a class of ALL the fruits & vegetables the class had tried

After: work on sorting the food quilts in different ways: into fruits and vegetables, into colors, etc.