Sylvia’s Spinach

How did that get on my plate? The literal answer to that question is what students will investigate in this lesson series. Young learners will see how Sylvia’s food preferences change when she grows her own food. Older students will understand where various crops originated and currently grow and calculate how far the food travels before it becomes part of your meal.

STANDARD | CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.2: With prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.

 

VIDEO READ ALOUD

 

GUIDING QUESTION

How do our tastes, or preferences, change?


 
 

WRITING EXTENSION

 

Use the Main Idea graphic organizer to identify the main idea of the story and three supporting details. Use the Character Graphic Organizer to write character traits.

 

SCIENCE EXTENSION

 

Try sprouting different types of seeds, like the students in Sylvia's class. Make notes on a calendar when you start to see sprouts. Which seeds germinated the fastest and which ones took longer? Seed Germination, Planting Lettuce Seeds

 

KITCHEN EXTENSION

 

Green eggs : mix 1/2 cup of finely chopped spinach with 2-3 eggs and scramble in a pan. Finish with salt and pepper to taste. Video Demo

 

ART EXTENSION

 

Leaf mandala (example): Collect leaves and Organize into groups that match by shape, color or size, with at least 5-10 matching leaves in each group. Choose one big beautiful spinach leaf to be the center of your mandala. On a table or piece of paper arrange your leaves in circles around the spinach in the middle. Take a picture to record your mandal and then clean up all the leaves. The center of your mandala represents the main idea of the story and the outer circles are the supporting details.

 

PLAY EXTENSION

 

Play Charades: Retell the story of Sylvia's Spinach without using words to someone in your household. Use your body to show what Sylvia does in the story and your facial expressions to show how she feels. Make sure to include how Sylvia feels about spinach at the beginning of the story, the middle, and the end of the story, and what happens to change her feelings. Video Demo

 
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Real Food Lab: Online Course for Students

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A Starch Contrast