A Salad Party

Ages 4 and up (one 1 hour session)

Objective:

To make a connection between themselves and the food chain
To enjoy the fruits of their labor and the garden

Materials:

Vegetables for the salad, oil and vinegar, bowls, forks, salt and pepper
Poster board and markers
Magazine pictures of animals and plants

Part One:

Using the art supplies and the magazine pictures, help the children create the cycle of life on the poster board. Start with plants capturing energy from the sun and using nutrients from the soil create another source of energy that everything else on earth depends on to live. Don’t forget to talk about the by product of this energy production. Add pictures of the animals in order of the food chain. Start with those that eat plants, then others that eat the plant-eaters, and finally the ones that eat both plants and animals. Show how when these organisms decompose, urinate, and defecate they provide nutrients for the plants which bring the life cycle full circle. Emphasize what each plant or animal or insect uses as its energy source and draw an arrow to it showing the roll of all creatures in the cycle of life.

Part Two:

Pick salad vegetables from the garden with the children.

Wash the vegetables and prepare the salad with the children.

Find a cozy place to sit in the garden, and Eat! Discuss what part of each plant they are eating, and how the process of eating connects them to other plants and animals.

Questions to ask:

When the children eat the salad, where are they on the food chain?
What are the children’s’ favorite foods?
Are they herbivores, carnivores, or omnivores?