As a stay-at-home dad as well as a home educator I always make sure that both boys have a great understanding of PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education)
We cover a variety of topics, one core aspect is a clear foundation of food lifecycles, growth, the social impact of food and developing understanding around this.
If you are one of my regular readers then you will know that food and cooking plays a core skill set within our education and we often look at circular processes of the food, how it is made, what from and how we can then use it. Embedded in these lessons is a clear understanding that we can grow and use our own food and when these healthier options are available.
Usually in spring time we start our food lifecycle topics where we have grown a variety of fruit and vegetables. I love it and so do the boys; seeing something grow from a seed, knowing how it grows stronger, learning to nurture that growth and then reaping the fruits of our labours at the end is a precious experience for anyone.
Usually in spring time we start our food lifecycle topics where we have grown a variety of fruit and vegetables. I love it and so do the boys; seeing something grow from a seed, knowing how it grows stronger, learning to nurture that growth and then reaping the fruits of our labours at the end is a precious experience for anyone.
This
has been our attitude as a family for generations and is something that I would
love my boys to continue.
GIY will send out growing kits to 6,666 schools across the country (1/4 of UK’s primary school children) with each kit containing enough material for a class of 32: 3 packs of seeds (runner beans, cress and carrots), 32 growing cups, soil and resource booklet containing advice and tips.
With
all of this in mind:
I am, of course, pleased to announce that I am an innocent UK ambassador for their Sow and Grow campaign which is designed to encourage children to make healthier choices by growing some of the food.
I am, of course, pleased to announce that I am an innocent UK ambassador for their Sow and Grow campaign which is designed to encourage children to make healthier choices by growing some of the food.
Innocent’s
overall mission is to get kids to eat healthily. They have partnered
with a not-for-profit organisation called GIY (Grow It Yourself) whose mission is to encourage people to grow their
own food. They believe that food growing creates ‘food empathy’ – a
deeper understanding of food, where it comes from and how it’s produced.
Innocent
launched eighteen years ago and is the UK and Europe’s number one smoothie
brand. They sell natural, healthy products – in little bottles and
big cartons; smoothies and juice for kids
Innocent
believe that everything they make should taste good and do good too. With that
they try to leave the planet a little bit better than how they found it. This
is reflected in everything, from their use of green electricity at Fruit
Towers, to sourcing fruit from places that go the extra mile in terms of
looking after all the people that work on the farms and the environment.
One
thing that I love about this campaign is the rooted idea behind the educational
message. Both innocent and GIY know that children who grow their own food are
more likely to eat fruit and veg, show higher levels of knowledge around
nutrition and are more likely to continue healthy eating habits throughout
their lives. With this in mind innocent and GIY have aimed their message
at primary school aged children. Teachers will be able to apply for (completely
free) growing packs online here.
GIY will send out growing kits to 6,666 schools across the country (1/4 of UK’s primary school children) with each kit containing enough material for a class of 32: 3 packs of seeds (runner beans, cress and carrots), 32 growing cups, soil and resource booklet containing advice and tips.
The
selection of seeds have been chosen carefully; the packs contain runner beans,
cress and carrot seeds because they are fast-growing, interesting, colourful
and importantly, plants that children can see growing and changing almost
straight away which will help them to remain engaged and enthusiastic.
Educationally,
as a home educating parent and primary school teacher, I think this
campaign is amazing! Look beyond the fundamental idea behind the campaign and
just examine the educational pack and resources you can see how much effort has
been put in to match cross-curricular criteria and targets.
By
working closely with teachers and educational specialists they have developed
detailed lesson plans for use throughout the primary years. Each one highlights
the national curriculum and the subjects it can cover and all with a cross age
range for adapted ages.
As
an experienced class teacher I can tell you that it takes time to learn how to
plan and cover one class with the range of abilities but as a key stage leader
it is harder to create content that covers it all.
The
pack starts off with growing tips for each type of seed.
The
way that it is set out, it can be read as a preface or can be read, adapted and
crafted into an individual literacy lesson.
Each
lesson plan gives a clear indication of the lesson duration, the cross
curricular links, a WALT brief, main activity and then a final call discussion.
Each
lesson then has its own accompanying activity sheet, such as this “My Growing
Chart” to work along with.
The
resource pack is something all educators, both home and schooled will love! The
message behind the campaign is something I am sure each parent would happily
back but to have the encompassing educational factor is perfect!
As
part of the campaign, innocent undertook a survey that revealed that 89% of
parents knew where veg came from when they were young, a higher figure than
with children today. They also found out that 42% of parents had a more healthy
diet as children.
These
statistics don’t really surprise me but I can see that this campaign will
hopefully create large improvements in these statistics from now on.
This
campaign is live from the beginning of February to the end of April and the
lesson plans can be downloaded from the Sow and Grow website.
We
have a few more posts to come out over this campaign to keep you up-to-date
with our growing progress so keep a look out!
In
the meantime, we’re off to learn, explore and grow!
(This is a collaboration with Innocent and GIY. My opinions are my own and I am under no obligations to give a positive review! Please see my full disclosure at the bottom of my blog)
5 comments:
This sounds like an amazing project for you and your boys. Like you my parents grow their own veg and I have grown up eating a wide veriety of fresh seasonal veg.
This is such a great campaign an you and the boys are the perfect ambassadors! I look forward to seeing more about what you 'sow and grow' x
It's great how the pack comes with all the teaching resources. Look forward to seeing how your stuff grows!
I love this post Martyn, enabling primary school classes to grow from seed is a great way to reach more children with the healthy eating and growing your own message. I have also bookmarked the GIY website as I've been looking for advice on what to plant when and as soon as I opened the site I could see it was just what I was looking for. I can also see that they are already sewing seeds, eek! I'd better get on with that next week.
Nat.x
What a great campaign to be a part of. Can't wait to hear about how it goes. Congrats
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