Memories of a kindergarten Local Food inquiry: "What food grows on this land?"

We started with a plan to build a treehouse, and soon found ourselves on a hunt for a banana tree. Through this inquiry, we ended up growing our knowledge of the kinds of trees and other food-bearing plants that grow locally on the land where our school is situated. Meaningful opportunities for problem-solving and sensory experiences, and cross-curricular connections to science, math, literacy, health, visual art.

* * *

One morning at outdoor learning time during the first week of school, a student announced, “We should build a treehouse!” This was an exciting idea, so when we went inside later we made a plan. The students decided which tree would be best for building the treehouse, and they thought about the kinds of materials they’d like to use—a blanket, some string, and some tape.

The next day, we worked together outside to bring the plan to life.

The ‘treehouse’ was a fun little home to play in, and the students quickly started to play ‘kitchen’ in the treehouse. They used our outdoor learning mats to make a large table, then found items from nature to be various food items and utensils for eating. Sticks were forks and knives and popsicles. Pine needles were French fries. Pinecones were potatoes and ice cream cones. Leaves were salad. Colourful flowers were candies. Sand was brown sugar. The students were very imaginative.

Things really got exciting on the following day, though, when a student discovered REAL FOOD—an apple—on the ground near the ‘treehouse.’

We were intrigued! Where had that apple come from? Did it come from someone’s lunch bag? Did one of the educators put it there? Did a raccoon or a squirrel or maybe a team of ants bring it from far away? Someone said that apples grow on apple trees, so we set off around the school in search of the apple tree. Finally, we found a place where there were apples all over the ground—close to a fence—and when we looked up, there was an apple tree on the other side of the fence! We collected many more apples that had fallen on the ground, and planned to take them back to our ‘kitchen’ to make apple sauce and apple pie . . .

. . . but then someone exclaimed, “Now let’s find a BANANA tree!” Well, THIS sounded like a REALLY great idea! So, apples in hand, off we went in search of bananas. As we explored, we noticed different kinds of trees. Some had needles and cones. Others had leaves and small colourful fruits that looked like cherries and berries. Others smelled beautiful (and we used their leaves later to make tea (cedar tea)). But we never did find a banana tree.

Inside later, we got fruit-tree books from the library, and looked online for photos and videos of banana trees. We learned that they grow in places that are very hot. They do not grow on the land where our school is.

...

The next day we had so much fun using tools from our classroom and from nature to chop and smash our apples. We were making apple sauce! We noticed seeds inside the apples, and learned that new baby plants grow from seeds. We counted and planted some apple seeds in soil to try to grow our own apple tree. 

We watched timelapse videos of apples ripening and seeds sprouting, and we were amazed. Then a pumpkin timelapse video popped up on our computer screen. The students knew about pumpkins! Some have planted pumpkins in their own gardens at home. Soon students were talking excitedly about gardens, and some shared that they have other foods like beans and tomatoes in their gardens!

So the next day, we brought some pumpkins, beans, and tomatoes to school. We had so much fun investigating these foods. Students demonstrated amazing problem-solving, perseverance, and collaboration skills as they tried to chop open their pumpkins – which proved to be much more difficult than smashing apples! The jubilation students expressed when they finally cracked open a pumpkin was thrilling! Another student used a rock and sharp stick to dig a hole into his pumpkin and felt such a sense of accomplishment when he finally pulled out his first seed. We recorded pictures and stories about all of these experiences in our outdoor learning journals.

Speaking of seeds, we LOVED how slippery they were, and we practiced squeezing them in our fingers to make them fly high up into the sky. We loved playing with them inside later, too, especially swirling them around in bowls of water with our hands.

While some students played with pumpkin seeds, others explored the tomatoes and beans, and noticed that they have seeds too.

We planted more seeds next to the apple seeds in our little gardens to find out what else we could grow.

We did lots of estimating and counting and comparing quantities of seeds, beans, and tomatoes, and we used ten frames to practice representing and counting up to ten.

Later, we read a book called “Up in the Garden, Down in the Dirt”, and learned that some foods like pumpkins, squash, zucchini, and watermelon grow on vines. (So we brought some of these vine-foods in to investigate, too. It was particularly fun to scoop in the watermelons and find black seeds to count.)

In that book, we also saw food growing on tall stalks—corn! A student asked if we could play with corn at school. So next we brought in some corn to pick and husk and play with.

Corn roasting on a campfire

Corn husk dolls

Preparing corn to sell at a 'store'

Counting 'stick dollars' - money to pay for the corn at the 'store'

We noticed that different local foods start with different letters of the alphabet. We started (although never actually finished) creating a class alphabet book with words and illustrations drawn by the students about the local foods we were investigating.

Side note: For educators who may be interested in guiding their students through a local food inquiry at some point in the future, here’s a list of some local foods your students may be familiar with, beginning with most letters of the alphabet:

Aa is for apple.

Bb is for berries and beans.

Cc is for corn and carrots.

Dd is for dandelions.

Ee is for eggs.

Ff is for fish.

Gg is for grain.

Hh is for honey.

Kk is for kale.

Ll is for lettuce.

Mm is for mushrooms and maple syrup.

Nn is for nuts.

Oo is for onion.

Pp is for pumpkins and potatoes.

Qq is for sQuash.

Rr is for raspberries.

Ss is for seeds and strawberries.

Tt is for tomatoes.

Vv is for venison.

Ww is for watermelon.

Yy is for yellow beans.

Zz is for zucchini.

 

Throughout this inquiry, we acknowledged every day that we were learning and playing on the traditional land of the Anishinaabe people. We learned that the Anishinaabe people who lived and learned here first, before there was ever a school on this land, ate healthy foods like pumpkins and squash, beans and corn. We wondered about other foods that we grow in our gardens or on farms which they might also have found or grown or hunted on this land before there were subdivisions and schools and stores. We learned that they even knew how to use (and still use) plants - including cedar which grows all around our school - as medicines.

We also learned that different kinds of foods help our bodies in different ways, and that we need to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, protein foods, and grain foods to be healthy.

The plants and foods that come from this land are amazing!