Curriculum Toolkit
Over the years, we have honed in on priority curricular units for every grade level, preschool through 12th grade, that build on each other and provide a meaningful food education for the students we work with.
This Toolkit is the compilation of these units, along with their related teaching standards, activities, and assessment tools. We are constantly adding to this site, so please check in again soon for updates.
We designed this curriculum framework to help our students grasp the following key concepts by the time they graduate from high school:
Feel confident in making healthy food choices
Appreciate the farming profession
Know that everyone can grow food
Understand the connection between healthy soil, healthy plants, and healthy people
Recognize the difference between the industrial and local food systems
4th Grade: Introduction to Food Systems and Food Choices
In fourth grade,
students continue reflecting on the history of food, now through the lens of one crop: corn.
After exploring the interconnectedness of our garden food web in the fall, we narrow our focus to corn and its path from teosinte to its current state as our country's most consumed crop.
Connections to IGS Learning Goals:
Appreciate the farming profession
Know that everyone can grow food
Understand the connection between healthy soil, healthy plants and healthy people
Feel confident in making healthy food choices
Essential Questions:
Where does food come from?
Where do seeds come from?
Why do we have farms?
What is waste?
How do humans and plants affect each other?
Lessons
Seasons in the School Garden
- Soil temperature
- Plant categorizing/tallying
- Worm tallying
- Fall plant identification
Fall Garden Harvest
- Harvest, dry, and process corn
- Make salsa
Field Trips
Gleaning @ Morning Glory Farm, Whippoorwhill Farm, or other island farms
Fall on the farm @ Morning Glory
Lessons
Seasons in the School Garden
- Soil temperature
- Plant categorizing/tallying
- Worm tallying
- Fall plant identification
America: A Melting Pot of Food
Lessons
Seasons in the School Garden
- Soil temperature
- Plant categorizing/tallying
- Worm tallying
- Fall plant identification
Garden Design
Polyculture vs. Monoculture
Planting Corn in the Garden
Planting in the Lasagna Garden
First Peas to the Table
Field Trips
Spring on a Farm @ Allen Farm or other island farm
4-ESS2-1
Make observations and collect data to provide evidence that rocks, soils, and sediments are broken into smaller pieces through mechanical weathering and moved around through erosion by water, ice, wind, and vegetation
4-ESS3-1
Obtain information to describe that energy and fuels humans use are derived from natural resources and that some energy and fuel sources are renewable and some are not.
4-LS1-1
Construct an argument that animals and plants have internal and external structures that support their survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction
3-5-ETS1-3
Plan and carry out tests of one or more elements of a model or prototype in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify which elements need to be improved. Apply the results of tests to redesign a model or prototype.
3-5-ETS1-5(MA)
Evaluate relevant design features that must be considered in building a prototype of a solution to a given design problem.
- Garden Design
Generate and analyze patterns
- Seasons in the Garden
Extend understanding of fraction equivalence and ordering
Solve problems involving measurement and conversion of measurements from a larger unit to a smaller unit
Represent and interpret data
- Seasons in the School Garden
Geometric measurement: understand concepts of angles and measure angles
- Garden Design
Draw and identify lines and angles, and classify shapes by properties of their lines and angles
- Garden Design
Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text
Compare and contrast a firsthand and secondhand account of the same event or topic; describe the differences in focus and the information provided
Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears
Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly
- Seasons in the School Garden
- Gardens Around the World
Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research
Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly
Paraphrase portions of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally
Seeds
Planting Corn in the Garden
First Peas to the Table
Garden
Seasons in the School Garden
- Soil temperature
- Plant categorizing/tallying
- Worm tallying
- Fall plant identification
Garden Design
Planting in the Lasagna Garden
Fall Garden Harvest
- Harvest, dry, and process corn
- Make salsa
First Peas to the Table
Food Systems
America: A Melting Pot of Food
Polyculture vs. Monoculture
Planting Corn in the Garden
4th Grade Book List
Corn
- Anna’s Corn, by Barbara Santucci
- Corn, by Gail Gibbons
- Tick Tock the Popcorn Clock, by Jane Moncure
Soil
- Winnie Finn, Worm Farmer, by Carol Brendler
Garden
- Chicks and Salsa, by Aaron Reynolds
- Our School Garden, by Rick Swann
- Blue Potatoes, Orange Tomatoes: How to Grow a Rainbow Garden, by Rosalind Creasy
- Weslandia, by Paul Fleischman
Spanish
- Sip Slurp Soup Soup Caldo Caldo Caldo, by Diane Bertrand (in Spanish and English)
- Gathering the Sun: An Alphabet in Spanish and English, by Alma Flor Ada
America: A Melting Pot of Food
- Everybody Bakes Bread, by Norah Dooley
- Everybody Cooks Rice, by Norah Dooley
- Everybody Brings Noodles, by Norah Dooley
- Everybody Serves Soup, by Norah Dooley