WHEAT LESSON. For the first two-week cycle, the first graders do the wheat lesson. I do this every year right before the winter rains set in. This lesson covers the Foss science standards, which the classroom teachers normally do inside.
Preparation: I recommend reading a fantastic book called ‘Bread Comes To Life’ by George Levenson who also wrote the Pumpkin Harvest book. This book walks one through the whole process of growing wheat, harvesting, mixing, shaping and baking bread.
If this is the first year of the lesson, you can purchase a pound or two of organic whole wheat berries. Unless you can arrange with a farmer to get the wheat before it is cleaned, you won’t be able to do the first part of the lessen, separating the chaff from the grain. Kids love this part because it's very hands on.
Using the wheat that was harvested the prior year, have the students separate the wheat from the chaff, blow the chaff away, grind wheat berries into flour. I have a corona mill grain grinder, but any kind that's kid friendly will work.
Best to finish off the class by planting wheat in the garden. You can plant any wheat berries you get from the store. Of course I prefer organic when possible.
Usually, the students favorite part of this lesson is grinding the wheat and watching it turn into flour. Much to their surprise, they also like eating the freshly milled flour so much they end up with it all over their faces.
At the end of the lesson, ask the students if any of their parents make bread at home. If so, you can send some flour home and see if the parents are willing to make bread from the fresh flour milled by the class to share as part of the lesson. This is a lovely way to complete the lesson and is something that kids will remember for many years, especially those who have never tasted homemade bread. And all this is from the wheat that came out of their garden!
Two to three weeks later when the wheat is 4-6 inches tall, you can perform an experiment which covers the science standards for 1st grade requiring that the student observe and describe the changes that occur as plants grow and develop. Ask the students if the wheat will keep growing if you cut the tops off of the plant. Most will say no, but lo and behold, it does keep growing from the cut stalks.
ADDITIONAL WHEAT LESSON FOR UPPER GRADES (3rd grade and up)
For a very effective lesson on preservatives or what I call 'refined vs. whole grain', get a piece of white bread and a piece of wheat bread. This experiment can be done inside the classroom. (nice for a rainy day) Ask the students which bread will mold faster, the white or the wheat. Put each piece of bread in a separate open zip lock tacked to the wall. Let them estimate how long it will take for the bread to mold and which will mold faster and why. Once the wheat starts molding they can discuss these reason.. The wheat has no preservatives while the white bread is full of them. Have them look at the ingredients of 'Wonder Bread'. It will definably make you wonder and teachers are suprised themselves
SUGAR BLUES LESSON. Best done before Halloween, but may be done shortly after as well.
I start out by asking the students to close their eyes and remember the first word that pops into their heads when I say the word ‘Halloween’. Most often they reply ‘trick or treat’ or candy. I use this as an opportunity to ask them what happens when they eat too much candy. This stimulates much conversation, and most of the kids know the words ‘hyper’ and ‘addiction’. Ask them what addiction is and what people can get addicted to. Next, I read a very well loved book called ‘Mr. Sugar Comes To Town’ by Harriet Rohmer. It’s a bilingual book with a great story that really shakes the students up, and has some wonderful teaching moments.
For the 4th and 5th graders, I borrow my science teacher’s scale and bring in some items that I see the students buy at school. For example, Capri-sun (we found out this has caffeine, too), or vitamin water. I bring in some sugar cubes and have them put one cube on the scale for every gram of sugar in the drink so they can see for themselves how much sugar is in each item. Collect a bunch of containers and have them read the labels to find all the different kinds of sugar that are used in these products. You can also talk about daily servings and what that means. This discussion never fails to shock them.
I like to finish off the lesson with a piece of sugar cane for each student. This way they can taste what real unrefined sugar is like. Telling them that this was used as a way to brush teeth before the invention of tooth brush can surprise them. They get a kick out of knowing that if your eat sugar cane it will not give you cavities because of it's lack of being refined.
