Cereals (5-7 Years)

Name some grains and food that they can be used to make.

Show the children some samples of grain (e.g. wheat, barley, oats). If you do not have these, you can use the Grain presentation. Talk about the grains.

Question the children:

• What are these?
• Are they the same?
• What is each one called?

Explain that each of these is a grain from different types of grass. Tell the children what each one is called and talk about how it can be used in different meals or to make different foods.

• Wheat – makes flour which can be used to make foods like bread, pancakes and scones.
• Oats – can be used to make porridge, oatcakes or muesli.
• Barley – can be added to stews, salads and soups and helps to make them more filling.

Activity ideas

• If samples of the grains are available, observe, draw and label each grain and a food it can be used to make.
• Display a selection of flour based products (or product packaging) around the room, e.g. bread (several varieties), scones, crumpets, pancakes, crackers. Task the children to choose three they enjoy eating and sketch and label these.

Round up

Recap the learning by questioning the children:

• What types of grain can you name?
• What foods can be made with each of these grains?
• What is made from wheat? (Flour)
• What is your favourite food made from flour?

Extension ideas

• Task the children to look for foods at home which are made with wheat (e.g. breakfast cereals) and with wheat flour. They could list or sketch the foods or bring in the packaging for display. (Check the packaging is clean, safe and suitable for the classroom.)

State what a plant (wheat) needs in order to grow.

Before the session you might find it useful to read the Wheat to bread information sheet. This describes the parts of a grain of wheat, how wheat is grown and how it is milled.  Show the image of the wheat grains from the Grain presentation (or real samples if available).

Question the children:

• What is this grain called? (Wheat.)
• Where is it found on the plant? (In the ‘ear’.)
• How is it made in to flour? (Crushed and sieved several times. See the Wheat to bread information sheet for more detail.)

Activity ideas

• Allow the children to grow their own wheat. Instructions can be found on the How to grow wheat sheet. Over the coming weeks, they can monitor how their wheat grows by measuring and photographing their seeds and recording this on the Wheat growing record sheet
• Draw or write the steps they have taken to grow their own wheat.

Round up

Recap the learning by questioning the children:

• What does a plant need in order to grow and be healthy?
• What does a farmer do each season when growing wheat?
• What have you done to grow your own wheat?

Extension ideas

You could try growing batches of wheat seeds in different conditions to see which grow best, e.g. in the dark, without water, in a cold place.

Explain the stages from seed to bread.

Show the children a loaf of bread. Ask them to explain where it comes from. Ask them to think back as far as the seed which became the wheat plant. (If you undertook Activity 2, the children should remember planting their own wheat seed. If not, you may wish to draw on some of the content from that lesson.) Use the Where does bread come from? presentation to go through the stages from seed to bread with the children.

Activity ideas

• Task the children to cut out the Seed to bread images and the labels on the sheet. Match the labels and images and place them in the correct order and stick them in their workbooks. If they are able, the children could write a few words under each image to explain what is happening.
• Write a story from the point of view of the seed explaining how it became a loaf of bread.
• If you have some real grain, you could let the children have a go at trying to crush this with a pestle and mortar (it’s very hard to crush by hand!).

Round up

• Ask some of the children to share their work.
• Recap the seeds journey to becoming a loaf of bread.

Extension ideas

Watch the GrainChain video on how wheat is milled into flour.

Name foods made from flour, including different types of bread.

Ask the children to name as many foods as they can which are made from flour. Ask them what food made from flour they ate most recently. Show the children the Flour foods presentation. Ask them to say which foods are made from flour and which are not.

Activity

This activity involves tasting. Before the lesson, check if there are any allergies, intolerances, religious or cultural reasons why the children cannot eat or have contact with any foods you are sampling. If there is not already a record of this in school, you may wish to send home the Ingredient checking letter and ask parents/carers to complete this.

Provide a selection (4-6 types) of bread and other products made from flour (you could use the foods made from flour from the PowerPoint). Refer to the Tasting guide for support setting up and running a tasting session.

Explain to the children that they will be tasting the foods and describing what they are like. Provide each child with a copy of the My tasting journal. Talk through the booklet with the children and discuss how to try foods.

Watch the Bread made in a bakery video. Discuss what is happening.

Round up

• Recap the learning by questioning the children:
• Can you name five foods made from flour?
• Can you describe how bread tastes?
• Can you explain how bread is made in a bakery?

Extension ideas

• Task the children to keep a record of all the flour-based products or types of bread they eat in a week.
• Create and carryout a survey to find out what is the most popular flour-based product in your class.