#Farming Bites: a new way to learn. Watching these sections of the Discovering Our Countryside programs will show the seasonal tasks and changes of plants and crops. This will give your pupils small regular video bites of learning gradually building up their knowledge of science units such as: 1b Growing , 2b Plants and animals, 2c Variation, 3b Plants Grow Well, 5b Life Cycles and Design Technology units such as: 1c Eat More Fruit and Veg, 5b Bread, 5d Biscuits
Learning will be just like growing up with the farm yard and countryside in your classroom
All the Crops related parts of recent programs are available on the video player above. Over the weeks the programs will look at the seasonal jobs carried out by farmers growing different crops.
Arable Crops Posts
26 November 2012 – Feeding a nation, Christmas harvests and farmers work
- Special Harvests The wet Autumn has meant farmers are still trying to harvest some crops and some special harvests have started, Christmas Trees and Sprouts
Download teachers notes for this section – Feeding a nation, Christmas harvests and farmers work.
12 November 2012 – Preserving – memories, food and wool
- How can you enjoy your 5-a-day all year round? This looks at the different ways we use to preserve food so we can enjoy it out of season. Freeze it! Cool it! Fly it! Cover it! Time it!
Download teachers notes for this section – Preserving the past – memories, food and wool.
22 October 2012 – Horse Power – then and now, Poo Cycle, Crop Cycle
Download teachers notes for this section – Re-Starting Natures Annual Cycle.
- Re-starting the Crop Cycle – Shows farmers planting their Winter crops and thus re-starting the farming cycle.
8 October 2012 – Autumn Tasks, Victorian Villages, School’s Harvest
- School’s harvest as do farmers - Shows pupils returning to Stockbridge to harvest the crops they planted this spring and also how farmers harvest the same crops with big machines
Download teachers notes for this section – Autumn Tasks, Victorian Villages, School’s Harvest.
24 September 2012 – Bygone days, harvest and lambs
- Using the products of harvest - Shows some of the products we can make from Cereal Grains such as flour, bread and beer.
Download teachers notes for this section – Bygone days, Bygone Harvest, Bygone Lamb.
10 September 2012 Landscape from Ice gives harvest for beast and man
- The harvesting of crops – shows farmers harvesting various crops such as cereals, potatoes peas. Also shows how a combine harvester threshes the corn in one process
Download teachers notes for this section – Landscape from Ice gives harvest for beast and man.Details of this program
9 July 2012 – Summer, when wonderful things, can happen to quiet people.
- How are crops doing? – Looks at how crops we saw planted in spring are doing in early summer. How bees have harvested the fields of yellow to make honey. Also looks at how Great Yorkshire Show Growing boxes are coming on
Download teachers notes for this section – Summer, when wonderful things, can happen to quiet people.
25 June – Eat Drink Fly like an Athlete!
- Eat like an Athlete – Explain what athletes eat, how you may be already eating like an athlete or easily could be if you don’t.
Download teachers notes for this section – Eat Drink Fly like an Athlete.
11 June 2012 - Athletic Snails, Micro Bugs Yum! Yum!
- Yum! Yum! - We look at how strawberries are produced in time for Wimbledon snacks.
Download teachers notes for this section – Athletic Snails, Micro Bugs Yum! Yum!.
21 May 2012 – Green Grass of May
- Ripe Tomatoes – The tomatoes we saw planted, sorted by robots, pollinated by bees are finally picked and sorted ready for you to enjoy in the shops.
Download teachers notes for this section – Green Green Grass of May.
8 May 2012 – May the food be tasty
- Planting Lettuces – We see the schools visiting Stockbridge Technology Centre planting lettuce and then see how this is done on a commercial scale.
Download teachers notes for this section – May the food be tasty.
23 April 2012 – April Showers – Lambs, Wild Flower, Potatoes…
- Planting Potatoes – We see the first school visits of the year to Stockbridge Technology Centre and see the children and their teachers busy planting potatoes and wild flowers.
Download teachers notes for this section – April showers.
26 March - Spring Marches On
- Sowing and harvesting – Whilst farmers are busy sowing crops such as peas and wheat in the fields, growers are already harvesting some of the crops like cucumbers, which are grown under glass.
Download teachers notes for this section – Spring Marches On.
12 March - The ides of March are upon us!
- Busy bees Busy Farmers –Shows bees busy pollinating tomatoes, and farmers busy in the fields, fertilising winter crops and sowing spring crops.
Download teachers notes for this section – Ides of March
6 February – New Spring – New Life
- New Life in the Greenhouse –Show the tomatoes we saw being planted and grown as seedlings now being transferred and set out in greenhouses.
Download teachers notes for this section – New Spring New Life
26 January 2012 Potatoes Beyond the Farm
- This shows how the surplus of harvest is stored and gradually used to keep the shops of Britain supplied year round – without the need for ‘fresh’ imports of potatoes from abroad as some shops would have you believe. It also shows how one of our favourite potato products is made – Crisps!
Download teachers notes for this section – Potatoes Beyond the Farm
9 January 2012 Computers in Agriculture
- In your local Greenhouse – Shows how machines are used to plant seeds then how computers and robots are used to then sort the growing seedlings. It also shows how human input is still needed for many jobs that computers cannot do – yet!.
Download teachers notes for this section – Computers in Agriculture
Arable Crops General National Curriculum Links
- Design and Technology KS 1 + 2
- Looks at growing crops in greenhouse to extend the growing period and provide fresh 5-a-day produce
- Unit 1c Eat More Fruit and Vegetables
- Science KS 1 + 2
- The videos have lots of science links to the units listed below for example:
- Shows plants life cycles and what parts of a plant we use and harvest.
- Some of machinery could be used to discuss pushes and pulls.
Relevant QCA Schemes of Work
- Unit 1B. Growing plants.Unit 1E Pushes and Pulls.
- Unit 2A Health and Grow.
- Unit 2B Plants and Animals.
- Unit 3B. Helping plants grow well.
- Unit 4B Habitats.
- Unit 5B. Life cycles.
- Unit 6A Interdependence and adaptation.
The 9 Eco School topics.
Energy
- Growing food and the associated energy costs of buying home grown food or imported food
Water
- Use of water to grow plants
Biodiversity
- How growing a bee larder can help school, garden and local biodiversity
School grounds
- How the simple act of planting some wild flowers can help with the design and creation of new features in your school grounds
Healthy living
- How growing your own produce can promote healthy living by promoting a healthy diet and also promoting exercise in the act of growing that produce. The improvement of school ground can also aid mental well being.
Transport
- Reduce transport costs of food by growing your own local produce.
Litter
- When carrying out gardening tasks introduce children to tidy habits – pick up all packaging and dispose of ‘thoughtfully’ – see waste
- When outside be it school, garden or countryside “Take only photos Leave only footprints!”
Waste
- Explain that gardening and farming is and always has been synonymous with recycling. Re-use seed trays, compost is made from last years ‘recycled’ plants. Think twice abut where to put litter – bin or recycle?
Global citizenship
- Explain how even the little things we do – where how food comes from, how much we recycle, our biodiversity, can affect the whole world be it good or bad!
National Government initiatives:
- Healthy Schools
- Sustainable Schools
- Every Child Matters
- Learning Outside the Classroom
- Thinking Skills.