Teaching Children About Food and the Countryside

We were learning about milk.  We learned that is was good for you because it contains protein and calcium and Vatmins A, D and B12 and then it occurred to me that most of them had never, ever seen a real cow.

teaching children about food

     This was many years ago. I was teaching a special class in a city school. Some of the children had problems behaving in an acceptable way and some had learning difficulties. We were a motley crew but we were all getting on well together. I decided to broaden their experiences by taking them on holiday in the countryside for a week.
    First though, we learnt about the area, making little models of the kinds of traditional Peak District houses they would find, we learned about rivers and as much about farming as we could and included in this we were learning about milk. ...and cows. I showed them pictures of the kinds of cows they were likely to see: Friesian cows with their distinctive black and white markings.
     The trip was unusual. I had invited parents to a meeting before hand and explained that it was absolutely neccessary for the children to have comfortable and substantial walking boots.  To my dismay one girl, Donna-Marie, turned up on the day with a brand new pair of bright red stiletto fashion boots. Another boy wore his father's work boots which were several sizes too big for him and had blisters before we had walked very far so had to be covered in plasters and lent extra socks.
   As we travelled into the country I realized how limited their experience was, "Oooooh! Mrs. G we are in the country. I've been before, " yelled one of the boys proudly, "there's a pub in it!!"

     "Ooh it's so untidy with these stones and rocks everywhere why don't they make it neat!" (Donna-Marie)
     "Mrs. G, it's weird, you don't know where you are there's no Caxton Road, no Brewers Street. It's weird!"
We didn't so much hike as mince along at Donna-Marie's pace as she hobbled  and tottered in her high heeled boots. What did they find the most interesting? Droppings. Rabbit droppings, sheep droppings and then they absolutely yelled in delight, "Mrs. G, Mrs G come and look..............!"
     a couple of American hikers coming in the opposite direction stopped to see what they had found.
     "Look Mrs. G, Friesian cow droppings!" they shouted delightedly pointing to a cow pat.
       "That is truly wonderful, "said one of the American hikers, " how those youngsters can tell the very breed of the cow just from that!"
     and puffed up with pride our little group tottered on its way!
Teaching children about food can be so rewarding!

This is not a Friesian cow.

Glenda
www.cutleryandcatering.co.uk