20 Food Facts 4 Education

Food facts to introduce you to our food stories.

These are the tweets we sent to give you a taste of food production and seasonality. Using our food stories can help you deliver the new curriculum – where food comes from, how it is grown, reared, caught and produced as well as it seasonality. Our food production teaching themes will help you embed this in your teaching. Food production, agriculture, horticulture and the countryside are rich with Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths, steeped in our History, part of our surrounding Geographical world, inspiration for our Art, Music, Literature, part of Religious belief.

Food Fact 11

Food Fact 11 Potatoes plant Spring in fields where animal poo been spread! #Food4Ed #UKEdchat http://t.co/atuVoJqdO2 pic.twitter.com/pWbPqkI58X

— Mark Thompson (@DiscovARCountry) July 8, 2014

Food Fact 10

Food Fact 10 Wheat planted Autumn on 2m football pitches Harvested Summer #Food4Ed #UKEdchat http://t.co/maiZbg4Znj pic.twitter.com/jbvXkQTVTt

— Mark Thompson (@DiscovARCountry) July 7, 2014

Food Fact 9

Food Facts 9 1043 football pitches wheat = 12million daily loaves bread #Food4Ed http://t.co/v5YVcRMCFW #countryfile pic.twitter.com/Yp8Wmw0UG7

— Mark Thompson (@DiscovARCountry) July 6, 2014

Food Fact 8

Food Fact 8 OSR 1 Ha (1 football pitch) = 2000 litres rapeseed oil #Food4Ed #countryfile http://t.co/v5YVcRMCFW pic.twitter.com/cU7MLnWqED

— Mark Thompson (@DiscovARCountry) July 6, 2014

Food Fact 7

Food Fact 6 Fields yellow oilseed rape Bees pollinate then harvest July #Food4Ed #UKEdchat http://t.co/s9RjOoDTwX pic.twitter.com/J8cpCkAhA8

— Mark Thompson (@DiscovARCountry) July 4, 2014

Food Fact 6

Food Fact 6 Fields yellow oilseed rape bees to pollinate then harvest July #Food4Ed #UKEdchat http://t.co/s9RjOoDTwX pic.twitter.com/1llxW1npvt

— Mark Thompson (@DiscovARCountry) July 4, 2014

Food Fact 5

Food Fact 5 What use are plants Follow the poo to fields of yellow to see #Food4Ed #UKEdChat http://t.co/s9RjOoDTwX pic.twitter.com/ZfgZYZjSC4

— Mark Thompson (@DiscovARCountry) July 3, 2014

Food Fact 4

Food Fact 4 What goes in does not all come out as milk! Follow the poo! #Food4Ed #UKEdChat http://t.co/LZGU8WDJd6 pic.twitter.com/sUXcI2FLEZ

— Mark Thompson (@DiscovARCountry) July 2, 2014

Food Fact 3

Food Fact 3 Follow milk into cartons and cream #Food4Ed #UKEdChat http://t.co/WoPCt7DZ1U #ukedchat pic.twitter.com/O4RiKw773H

— Mark Thompson (@DiscovARCountry) July 1, 2014

Food Fact 2

Food Fact 2 Much of it drunk by you enough to fill 41 swimming pools #Food4Ed #UKEdChat http://t.co/WoPCt7DZ1U pic.twitter.com/WXMCuuGHJw

— Mark Thompson (@DiscovARCountry) June 30, 2014

Food Fact 1 #Food4Ed

Food Fact 1 I produce 6 million cartons milk each day #Food4Ed See how here http://t.co/WoPCt7DZ1U #countryfile pic.twitter.com/Llv5VhhGhN

— Mark Thompson (@DiscovARCountry) June 29, 2014

20 Food Facts

Discovering-Our-Countryisde can change that make Food production part of the 3 R’s Reading wRiting countRyside.

Discovering-Our-Countryisde makes food production, agriculture, horticulture and the countryside visible, touchable, accessible and exciting for everyone of all ages. Our simple yet innovative use of modern technology brings the farm yard right into your classroom, but without the muck, smells or dangers or inherent costs! See how below…..

Benefits of having the Discovering Our Countryside farm yard into your classroom?

My passion for sharing and experience of agriculture led me to develop teach.discovering-our-countryside an innovative virtual learning platform (VLE) which contains a series of farming, growing and food production teaching resources in line with the new curriculum for September 2014. These include engaging video diaries, teachers’ packs and student workbooks – each subject is designed as a self contained, yet integrated lesson plan that builds up the pupils’ knowledge and interest in the countryside.

How to get the Discovering Our Countryside farm yard into your classroom?

Well watch the videos of why, how and then make it so with our free trial – details below or click to Discovering-Our-Countryside Free Trial Now

The Discovering-Our-Countryside themes:

• Yr1-2 Are your pets really alive?
• Yr1-2 Plants – what use are they?
• Yr3-4 What goes in….
• Yr3-4 Follow the poo…
• Yr5-6 Can sheep really read numbers?
• Yr5-6 Farmers V Bugs – It’s WAR!

Mission of Discovering Our Countryside.

The films and commentaries have been developed specifically to help teachers in the classroom. We offer suggestions and provide specific links to the National Curriculum and your Eco School work – it covers many of the topics under the Eco Schools initiative, such as: transport; waste, recycling and litter; care of school grounds; healthy living; energy; bio-diversity; and the global perspective.

The programmes also play a role in related national Government initiatives such as: healthy schools; sustainable schools; Every Child Matters; and Learning Outside the Classroom.

We hope you will use the programmes to enhance the work that you are doing in your own classrooms.

Discovering Our Countryside not only follows the national schools guidelines, but also encourages learning through discussion and interaction by children in pairs and groups, circle time or class discussion, as well as providing a clear, interesting and informative picture of the important role of agriculture and rural affairs in the lives of pupils from an early age.

Discovering Our Countryside is a modular approach to the seasonality of rural affairs. Agricultural content covers crops, from seed to harvesting, through to how food reaches the table; livestock rearing, including birth, milking, and rearing; and how often large and overpowering vehicles and farm machines work. And the programmes also include the importance of wildlife, including mice, rabbits, hares, badgers, foxes etc. through to the vast range of birds that are often seen as just distant wings on the horizon, as well as flowers, shrubs and trees.

Agriculture and rural life goes on all year round, and Discovering Our Countryside captures this seasonality.

Whilst many schools operate farm visits, these are invariably held during term time and usually when better weather can be expected, but farming goes on day after day through all the seasons. Discovering Our Countryside not only brings autumn, winter, spring and summer right into the classroom, but it also allows pupils to get ‘up close and personal’ with such activities as milking, sowing and harvesting, and gets closer to farm machinery than any risk assessment will allow.