In this lesson, students discuss the seasons, explore seasonal food from the garden, and participate in a mystery vegetable tasting.
In this lesson, students harvest the six plant parts and create their own garden burrito using the plant parts. This lesson is meant to complement the 3rd grade curriculum in NC and meets NC Essential Standards for Science on Ecosystems as well as Health Education, however, it can easily be adapted to fit a variety of health and science standards in older or younger grade levels.
Students will be able to:
- Recall the parts of a plant (roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds) and how each part relates to plant survival
- Use proper harvesting technique for each plant part
- Give edible examples of each plant part
- Create a garden burrito using each plant part
- Infer the importance of healthy eating habits and the value in eating a variety of nutrient dense foods
Students will be able to:
- Correctly recall the six plant parts
- Correctly identify and harvest the edible plant parts growing in the garden
- Successfully create a garden burrito using and identifying each plant part used
- Discuss the importance of healthy eating habits and eating a variety of nutrient dense foods
- Plant part poster identifying the different parts of a plant
- Spoons and serving utensils for creating burritos
- Bowls and scissors for harvesting
- Make sure there are enough edible plant parts growing in the garden, or substitute other items from a farmer's market
- Set up stations for cleaning and preparing plant parts
- Set up station for creating burritos
At the opening of the lesson:
- Ask students to raise their hand if they've ever eaten part of plant. Ask which part of a plant.
- Introduce the lesson using the parts of a plant poster. This may be new information or review, depending on the age group.
- Use the poster to recall parts of plants and the function each part serves.
- Explain to students that just like plants, we need a variety of nutrient dense foods for our survival. Ask: Why do you think plants are important for us to eat? Do you think we can create a snack using all of the plant parts?
- Lead students to the garden, if harvesting your plant parts, and discuss how to harvest each plant part. Breaking students into groups to harvest may be helpful. Each group can harvest a part.
- Lead students into the kitchen to clean and prepare the harvested ingredients for a burrito.
- Set up stations along with students in an assembly line for burrito creation. Students assemble their own burritos. Ours looked like this: begin with a lettuce leaf (Leaves), fill the leaf with shredded carrots (Roots), chopped celery (Stems), basil and fennel flowers (Flowers), chopped tomatoes (Fruit), and hummus or sunflower butter (Seeds).