Activity: Where Do Your Fruits/Veggies Grow?

In this math and geography lesson, students will recognize where various fruits and vegetables are grown and realize the importance of eating locally.

Materials

• Map
• List of where fruits and vegetables are grown (optional)
• Ruler
• Calculator (optional)
• Pencils

Set up options

• Students can work individually or as teams
• Students can research where fruits/veggies are grown or you can provide a list of for students

Activity

• Using a map, have students calculate the number of miles it takes to ship a fruit/vegetable from where it is grown to your school.
• Have students label the map to identify where the fruit/vegetable is grown.  Using the ruler draw a line from the place of origin to your school.
• Have students use the scale on the map to calculate the number of miles the fruit/vegetable travels.
• Compare and contrast the distance between various items.
• As a class, discuss the importance of growing/buying locally. 
• What is the environmental impact of shipping fruits and vegetables?
• What sorts of fruits/vegetables should students try to buy/grow locally? 
• Are any of these items being grown in your garden?
• What are the advantages/disadvantages of being able to ship these products across the country/world?

To find what fruits and vegetables are local to your state and to others, visit The National Resource Defense Council website. Use this site to create a list of fruits/vegetables and their locations for your students to map. This website also allows you to search by season!

Activity: Farmers Market

In this activity, students will practice their addition and subtraction skills.

Materials

• Fruits and vegetables (either real, plastic, or pictures)
• Price tags
• Budget or play money for students
• Shopping list or recipe (optional)

Activity

• Set up your classroom like a farmers market so that each student's desk sells a different fruit or vegetable.
• Create price tags or signs with the price of each of the fruits and vegetables.
• Have the students rotate between being shoppers and farmers.
• When students are shoppers, give them play money and have them figure out what they can purchase at the market.  Shoppers can also use a shopping list or recipe so that they have some direction on what they can purchase.
• When the students are farmers, they must calculate the appropriate change for the shoppers.
• Have the students rotate between being shoppers and farmers.
• When you are finished, use the fruits and vegetables for a snack.

Extensions

• Using copies of a grocery store's weekly flyer have students figure out what healthy foods they can purchase for a designated dollar amount.  Have students describe how much they spent, how much money they had left over, and why they chose the foods that they did.
• Have students complete the Grocery Shopping Worksheet.

Activity: Growing Potatoes and Carrot Tops

Capture the interest and imagination of students by growing carrot tops and potatoes.


Materials

• Toothpicks
• Glass or plastic cup or saucer
• Water
• Sweet Potato or Carrot
• Knife
• Scissors
• Pebbles or pea gravel

Carrots

• Select a fresh carrot that still has the leaves on the top.
• Cut the carrot so that about two inches remain below the top. 
• Trim the leafy greens from the top of the carrot.
• Fill a container with about one inch of pebbles or pea gravel.
• Place the carrot tops, cut side down, in the gravel.  If necessary, add more gravel to hold the carrot tops in place.
• Add water to the container.
• Place the container in a sunny location.
• Ask students to predict what will happen. 
• Will a new carrot form? 
• Will it grow? 
• If so, how big will it get?
• Observe the changes in your carrot.
• Add water as necessary.
• Although the carrot will not form a new root, after a few days leafy greens will start to appear.

Potato

• Place four toothpicks around the middle of a potato.
• Fill a cup with water.
• Taking the potato with the toothpicks, rest the toothpicks on the edge of the cup.  The bottom of the potato should be sitting in the water.
• Place the cup in a sunny location.
• Ask students to predict what will happen. 
• Will a new potato form? 
• Will it grow?
• If so, how big will it get?
• Observe the changes in the potato.
• Add water as necessary so that the bottom of the potato is in the water.
• After a couple of days, roots will start to form in the water and stems and leaves will start to form.

Activity: How does your garden grow?

This sequencing activity allows children to imagine being a farmer or gardener. Children will practice following directions, putting items into a sequence or particular order, and using basic addition and subtraction.


Materials:
Worksheet containing images of four tomatoes, four ears of corn, four heads of lettuce and four carrots
Brown construction paper
Coloring supplies
Scissors

Activity:

1. Give each student the vegetable worksheet, one piece of brown construction paper, coloring supplies and scissors.
   
   
2. Have students color and cut out the pictures of the vegetables. Make sure that students color in the vegetables the appropriate colors.
   
   
3. Explain to students that we will now plant our garden but we have to follow very specific instructions to make sure that everything grows.
   
   
4. Tell students that the piece of brown construction paper is their garden. The side of the paper closest to them is the front of the garden and the edge of the paper that is furthest away from them is the back of the garden. (It may be useful to demonstrate this to students to avoid confusion)
   
   
5. As you read each example to the class, have students arrange their vegetables in their garden. Tell students that they may need to rearrange or change their vegetables as each clue is given. Read each example two or three times so that students can check their work. You may need to do the first example together so students get an idea of what they are supposed to do.
   
   EXAMPLE ONE:
   The tomatoes get planted in the front row of the garden.
   The lettuce gets planted in a row behind the tomatoes.
   The corn gets planted in a row in front of the lettuce.
   The carrots get planted in the back row of the garden.
   
   
   
   EXAMPLE TWO:
   The corn gets planted in the front row of the garden.
   The tomatoes get planted in the back row of the garden.
   The lettuce gets planted in a row right behind the corn.
   The carrots get planted where you think they should go.
   
   
   
   EXAMPLE THREE:
   The yellow vegetable gets planted the back row of the garden.
   The red vegetable gets planted in a row right in front of the yellow vegetable.
   The green vegetable gets planted in the front row.
   The orange vegetable gets planted where you think it should go.
   
   
   
   EXAMPLE FOUR:
   The yellow vegetable gets planted in a row in the middle of the garden.
   The red vegetable gets planted in a row in front of the yellow vegetable.
   The green vegetable gets planted in the back row of the garden.
   The orange vegetable gets planted in the front row of the garden.
   





6. After reading each example, review it together and show the correct arrangement of vegetables.


7. After completing each example or after doing all of the examples, students will now "harvest" their vegetables. Read each "recipe" below and have students remove the appropriate number of vegetables from the garden and place them in an imaginary basket. You can follow up by asking students how many vegetables are left in the garden or row, how many vegetables did they pick from the garden, etc.
   
   RECIPE 1:
   Two heads of lettuce
   Three ears of corn
   One tomato
   One carrot
   
   RECIPE 2:
   Three ears of corn
   Four carrots
   Two heads of lettuce
   
   RECIPE 3:
   Two tomatoes
   Three carrots
   All of the lettuce
   One ear of corn
   
   RECIPE 4:
   One head of lettuce
   One tomato
   Two carrots
   Two ears of corn
   

Activity adapted from AIMS Education Foundation's "The McGregors' Garden" Activity

Activity: Estimating Tomato Seeds

Fresh fruits and vegetables can be excellent tools to teach basic math skills. In this activity, students will practice estimating, comparing and contrasting, and doing basic addition and subtraction.

Materials:

Cherry tomatoes (enough so each student gets ½ of a tomato)
Paper towels/napkins
Paper and pencils
One large tomato
A knife to cut food in half ahead of time

Activity:

1. Explain to the students that today we are going to guess or estimate the number of seeds inside of a fruit or vegetable.
   
   
2. Hand out ½ of a cherry tomato and paper towel/napkin to each student. Make sure that the students do not eat the tomato before completing the exercise.*
   
   
3. Without actually counting the number of seeds, have students guess how many seeds are in their tomato half. Have them record the number on a piece of paper.
   
   
4. Instruct students to count the seeds in their tomato.
   
   
5. Have students record the actual number and figure out how close they were to their guess, allowing them to practice subtraction. Find out who was the closest.
   
   
6. Have students compare the number of seeds in their tomato with a partner. Who has more seeds? How many seeds do they have all together?
   
   
7. As a class, calculate the total number of seeds from all of the tomato halves. You can also calculate how many seeds one half of the room has compared to the other, how many seeds the girls had compared to the boys, etc. Each time students can either calculate the totals together as a class or do the addition on their own and then together as a class.
   
   
8. Now ask students to guess how many seeds are in one large tomato. Record answers on the board or chart paper.
   
   
9. Have students count the number of seeds in the tomato.
   
   
10. Compare the number of seeds in the large tomato to the number of seeds in the cherry tomato halves and to the classes’ total number of cherry tomato seeds. Which has more?
    

Extension:

• Do the same activity with a different fruit/vegetable (ex: pumpkins, apples, peppers, watermelon, etc.)
  
  
• Have students calculate the mean (average), median (middle number), and mode (most frequent number) for the classes’ cherry tomato seeds
  

Note: Although student could eat their tomato halves, they probably shouldn’t since they will be playing with them and counting the number of seeds. It is probably best to advise your students that although tomatoes are a yummy snack, it is best that we don’t eat them after playing with them.

Activity: Shape Hunt

Description: Allow children to search in the garden and identify shapes.

Ages: 5-8

Materials:
Journals/Paper
Pencils/Crayons
Sheet containing drawings and names of geometric shapes.

Activity: Take your class on a "shape hunt" to identify shapes in the garden.

First ask children to name the types of shapes that they already know. Discuss the prepared sheet by identifying and naming the example drawings and names of geometric shapes.

Demonstrate how to look at plants, leaves, etc. to identify shapes. Tell the children that they will now hunt for shapes in the garden.

Tell each child or each pair of children to look in the garden and identify and draw at least six shapes.

Upon completing their hunt, gather again to discuss what types of shapes they discovered and where they found them. Compare all the different ways that similar shapes are found in the garden.

Depending on available time, have children go on a second hunt to find shapes that were not found the first time.

Work Cited:
White, J., Barrett, K.D., Kopp, J., Manoux, C., Johnson, K. & McCullough, Y. (2006) Math in the Garden: Hands on activities that bring math to life. National Gardening Association: Burlington, Vermont.