Growingfor theFuture

Key Stage 2February

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Areas of Learning• The World Around Us• Personal Development and

Mutual Understanding

Learning IntentionsWe are learning:• that potatoes are grown in many

different countries around the world;

• how the Great Famine in Ireland caused people to emigrate;

• that microbes can be helpful as well as harmful;

• ways in which some materials can be reused for different purposes;

• to prepare, taste and name dishes that reflect cultural diversity; and

• to demonstrate good food safety practices when getting ready to store, prepare and cook food.

Throughout the activities links to the curriculum skills have been signposted.

Get Inspired!Around the World Display the word ‘potato’ in different languages (Resource A). Explain that potatoes are grown all over the world. Display the World Potato Cultivation Map (available at brilliantmaps.com/potatoes/) showing some of the places they are grown.

Explain that within countries, different potato varieties grow in particular regions, for example the Glens of Antrim and Comber in Northern Ireland.

Show the children the Top 10 Potato Producing Countries video and statistics (see www.mapsofworld.com). Discuss how statistics can change depending on the country and environmental and/or human factors, for example government decisions, drought, war, pests etc.

Use The Great Famine in Ireland Each One Teach One cards provided in Resource B to discuss the potato blight (for more on Each One Teach One, see Active Learning and Teaching Methods for Key Stages 1 & 2, available at www.nicurriculum.org.uk).

As part of the debrief, ask:

• Was there anything that surprised or shocked you?• How do you think people were feeling during the famine?

Explain that microbes are living things all around us, but we cannot see them without microscopes. Microbes include:

• Fungi• Bacteria• Viruses.

Find out what the children already know about some microbes. What can they find out about them? Be sure to emphasise that some are helpful while others are harmful and can cause disease in both plants and animals. Recap on the fact that the blight was caused by a fungal disease.

Set up an experiment to see how quickly harmful fungus can spread.

ManagingInformation

Key Using ICT Using Maths Communication

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Key Stage 2February

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What you need

• Tongs• Unopened fresh bread• 3 sealable food bags• Labels• Marker• Warm water• Soap• Paper towels

Instructions

1. Use the tongs to carefully remove a slice of bread from its packaging and place in a food bag.

2. Seal the bag and label it ‘control’.

3. Take a second slice of bread and pass it around the class, ensuring everyone touches it.

4. Seal it in a food bag and label it ‘unwashed hands’.

5. Ensure that everyone washes their hands thoroughly with warm water and soap and dries them using paper towels.

6. Pass a third piece of bread around for everyone to handle.

7. Place the piece of bread in a food bag, seal the bag and label it ‘clean hands’.

Leave the bags somewhere where changes can be observed over 2–3 weeks. Note significant observations using the following questions:

• When did mould begin to appear?

• On which bread sample did mould appear first? Why?

• What colour is the mould?

• Where on the bread did the mould begin to grow? Did it spread? Where?

Ensure the bags remain sealed throughout the experiment and dispose of them when finished; inhaling mould spores is harmful.

Ask the children to consider where the microbes must have been living and discuss the importance of hand hygiene to prevent the spread of harmful germs.

ManagingInformation

Interesting Fact Microbes are living everywhere – in the soil, on rocks, even in and on our bodies!

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Key Stage 2February

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Northern Ireland Farmer John ClarkeJohn Clarke was born into a farming family near Ballycastle, Northern Ireland in 1889. He left school at the age of 11 to help on the farm. He continued to read books and learned Dutch, Italian and German so that he could correspond with people interested in farming methods. He discovered the solution to potato blight by developing a potato that cropped in the spring, therefore avoiding the summer when warmth and rain encouraged the fungus to spread and grow more quickly. His first newly-bred potato was the Ulster Monarch (1936). Explain that in the 1800s, people needed to combat crop growth difficulties and today we do exactly the same; the difference nowadays is we have more research scientists, laboratories and sophisticated equipment.

ManagingInformation

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Key Stage 2February

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Being CreativeGet Growing!Growing Potatoes Indoors and OutdoorsDiscuss what plants need in order to survive (light, water and oxygen). Explain to the children that they are going to begin growing chitted potatoes in preparation for planting them outdoors in 4–6 weeks.

Organise the class into six groups, with each group responsible for planting one of the chitted potatoes. Each group will need the items listed below.

What you need

• 1 chitted potato • 1 deep pot • Compost• Stones • Watering can

Instructions

1. Put a few stones in the bottom of the pot for drainage.

2. Cover with compost, leaving 12 cm from the top of the pot.

3. Carefully place the chitted potato in the soil with the shoots facing upwards .

4. Gently cover the potato completely with soil.

5. Water the plants and place them in an area where there is light.

6. Wash hands after handling the soil.

7. Water the plants over the next 4–6 weeks.

8. Observe and record details of the potato plant growth by:

– measuring shoots;

– recording details of colour, number of leaves etc.; and

– using photographs as supporting evidence.

9. At the end of the 4–6 weeks, take the plants out of their pots so that root growth can be considered before planting outdoors.

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Key Stage 2February

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Why not use this opportunity to recap on the needs of plants by changing the growing conditions – the variables – for each pot (see Resource C)?

During the 4–6 week period, ask the children to think about the places or containers they could use to plant potatoes outdoors in April.

Show the children images on the interactive whiteboard of potato containers, including potato bags, wire cylinders, potato towers, raised beds etc.

Play the video 10 Ways to Grow Potatoes: Potato Planting Ideas available at balconygardenweb.com

If you don’t have a school garden, you should think of other inventive potato containers, such as a:

• laundry basket;• bin;• used tyre;• pair of jeans; or• bucket.

Being Creative

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Key Stage 2February

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ManagingInformation

Get Cooking!Making Potato BreadIn advance of this lesson, have prepared a basket of different breads, some of which would be traditionally associated with Northern Ireland and others that would be traditionally associated with other countries, for example soda bread, wheaten bread and potato bread (Northern Ireland), baguette and croissants (France), doughnuts (America), pitta bread (Greece), naan (India), tortillas (Mexico), and ciabatta and focaccia (Italy).

Show the children a basket with different types of bread in it. Explain that some were baked here and some have been imported. This demonstrates how international trade is an important part of our economy. As transport and communication have greatly developed, we can now enjoy foods that we would not have had in the past. Show the children the packet of potato bread and ask if they know of any other names it might be called, for example potato farl, fadge, tatie bread or slim. Have they ever eaten this, perhaps with a fry? Explain that potato bread is traditional in Northern Ireland and that it was made traditionally on a griddle, a flat hot iron plate, but nowadays it is cooked in the pan.

Display the potato bread recipes from Sow, Grow, Munch on the interactive whiteboard.

As the children make their bread move between the groups to advise and support them and encourage them to apply the correct techniques. Use appropriate vocabulary, for example:

• Mash the potatoes firmly.• Sprinkle in the baking powder. • Shape the rounds to 2.5 cm.

Encourage the children to use their senses throughout the process, using questions such as:

• How does the mixture feel? • How does it look as each ingredient is added or mixed

through? • How does it smell as it cooks?• Once cooked, how does it taste?

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Key Stage 2February

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Resource APotato in Different Languages

potato – English batata – Portuguese

prátaí – Irish ziemniak – Polish

papa – Spanish patates – Turkish

Kartoffel – German aardappel – Dutch

tŭdòu – Chinese картошка – Russian

pomme de terre – French albtatis – Arabic

patata – Italian aaloo – Hindi

poteto – Japanese

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Key Stage 2February

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Resource BEach One Teach One Cards

The Great Famine in Ireland

1. The Great Famine was also known as the Great Hunger.

2. The famine happened in 1845–1852.

3. Total deaths equalled approximately one million.

8. Landlords in Ireland were feared by their tenants.

9. Tenant holdings were so small that nothing other than potatoes would grow.

10. One third of all families could not pay their rent.

4. The famine was caused by potato blight.

6. More than a million people emigrated from Ireland.

5. The population fell by 20–25%.

7. The potato blight turned potatoes to mud.

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Key Stage 2February

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11. Potato blight is caused by a fungus. The fungus lives in the soil and attacks the potato plant. It can destroy a whole crop in as little as 10 days.

12. A plot of land could mean the difference between life and death in the early nineteenth century.

13. The potato was introduced to Ireland as a garden crop of the gentry.

18. How the blight arrived in Ireland is uncertain.

19. Some believed the diseased potatoes came from the eastern United States.

14. The potato became the principal food of Ireland because the main diet still revolved around butter, milk and grain products.

16. The Irish Lumper was the main potato grown.

15. In the first two decades of the eighteenth century it became the food of the poor.

17. Before the famine, the potato crop was used extensively as a fodder crop for livestock.

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Key Stage 2February

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20. The blight spread rapidly.

24. The same numbers of men and women emigrated.

25. The emigrants sent money home to their families in Ireland, which in turn, allowed another family member to emigrate.

26. The ships people emigrated in were known as coffin ships, as they were overcrowded and poorly maintained and many deaths happened.

27. After the famine, the potato remained Ireland’s staple crop.

28. Emigration has been an important source of inspiration for songs throughout the world.

22. Three million Irish people were totally dependent on the potato for food; famine was inevitable.

21. In 1846, three quarters of the harvest was lost to blight.

23. Younger members of families emigrated.

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Key Stage 2February

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Resource C

Pot Test Variable to be changed

1 Does the potato need water? Do not water the plant. Leave it in the light.

2 Does the potato need light? Water the plant. Leave it in a dark cupboard.

3 Does the potato need oxygen? Water the plant. Secure a clear plastic bag over the top. Leave it in the light.

4 Does the potato need water, light and oxygen?

This is the control. Water the plant. Leave it in the light.

5 Does the potato need water, light, air and warm temperatures?

Water the plant. Leave it in the light in a warm place.

6 Does the potato need water, light, air and cool temperatures?

Water the plant. Leave it in the light in a cool place.