Homeschool // Pre-school // Food Group: Grains

"Grains" was my lesson for the month of March. We were covering the different food groups and this is the one I got.  At first I was like, wait what?! Its a bland topic, just like the food ;), but after thinking about it I am really happy how the lesson came about.  I started with an explanation of how we get grains- from seed to bread in a short picture video clip I found on a great website called the grainchain.com I got all my resources from their website.  I used the following flash cards to break down the process:

and then I had the kids tape them on my easel board I use for lessons so that it got them interactive.

Next we watched a video from the grainchain.com about how bread is made in the factory. After that I used the following flash cards in order that they may visually see all the foods that they eat that are made with- GRAINS:

I had the kids one by one tell me what each one was.  

I summed up the lesson with a fun reading of the book, "If you give a Pig a Pancake"

Lastly, we always have a "hands on" activity and today I planned we should make nothing other than Pancakes! 

 So we measured what I told them was "flour" (which comes from grains) ;) (really it was pancake mix, I am not Martha Stewart here)

 and then we proceeded to measure out the milk, whisk, and add the egg at the end.  I took them up to the griddle and they got to scoop out the mixture and make their very own pancake.  

**This also lends itself to a good lesson in measurement, estimation and even math. 

We had a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed the lesson...and the pancakes! Lets be honest, their favorite part was the pancake, but hey I can dream right?!