Field to fork

English Reception
This unit is part of Reception English Growing Plants

Active Learning

  1. Seed to Sunflower
  2. Growing cress
  3. Growing instructions
  4. Plant label

Creating and Thinking Critically

  1. Favourite fruits
  2. Fruit still life
  3. Sandwich instructions
  4. Make a sandwich

Exploring and Playing

  1. Multi-area outside project
  2. Potato printing
  3. Small world gardens
  4. Favourite fruit and veg

Books to Share

  1. Display and read Grass for Tea! (resources). Identify animals and discuss what they eat. Next, discuss the plants that other animals eat, e.g. hen = corn, cow = grass, duck = pondweed.
  2. Share Oliver’s Vegetables. Identify and enjoy the humour. Discuss why Oliver didn’t spot the potatoes instantly. Find each vegetable and recognise which part Oliver ate, e.g. cabbage = leaf.
  3. Read Oliver’s Vegetables. Notice how Oliver eats a different vegetable each day for a week. Order the days of the week and identify what Oliver eats on each day. Write ideas as a list.
  4. Enjoy Oliver’s Fruit Salad. Discuss why Oliver thought Grandpa’s fruit is better. Identify fruit children have picked and eaten; share favourites. Briefly consider why fresh fruit is seasonal.
  5. Read Oliver’s Fruit Salad. Notice that at the start Oliver didn’t want to eat the fruit. Discuss why he changed his mind. Finally, list lots of different fruits and describe them, e.g. red cherry.

Poetry/Rhyme of the Week: One Tomato, Tomato Two
Share the poem and rehearse at suitable times throughout the week, e.g. start/end of the day. Help children vary the pitch and tone of their voice as they rehearse to stress the counting words. Hold up fingers to correspond to each number and generate an action, e.g. munch = snap mouth shut.

Group Reader: Grass for Tea
This beautifully illustrated non-fiction book is a perfect introduction to the genre for beginning readers. Children will be able to find out information about native British animals, presented in a clear, accessible way. This phonologically decodable text is a superb accompaniment to a block of work on factual texts.

You Will Need

Essential text
Oliver's Vegetables
by Vivian French
Oliver's Fruit Salad by Vivian French
Grass for Tea (Hamilton Group Reader)

Desirable text
Seed to Sunflower
by Camilla de la Bedoyere or another similar non-fiction text that includes a range of textual features

Websites
Grass for Tea Group Reader from Hamilton Group Reader
Little Brown Seeds - song and actions from youtube.com
One tomato, two tomatoes from bbc.co.uk

Resources
Packets of cress seeds
Ingredients to make a cress sandwich
Unusual fruits, e.g. kiwi, persimmon, passion fruit, guava, pomegranate
Selection of gardening equipment (trowels, pots, soil, forks etc.)
Seeds/seedlings
Potatoes, carving tools