Expeditionary Learning Model Expedition: Grade 1

Young Achievers Sciences and Mathematics Pilot SchoolBoston, MA

Expedition Authors: Nicole Weiner and Heidi Fessenden

Farms and FoodGuiding Questions:

•Where does our food come from?

•How does our food come from the farm to the table?

•How do people ensure justice for workers in the production and distribution of food?

Farms and Food Model Expedition: Grade 1Young Achievers Sciences and Mathematics Pilot School

Boston, MA

Part One: Farms•Case Study: The Apple Orchard

•Kickoff to year-long expedition: case study of an apple orchard. •After the visit: they recreated all aspects of the orchard and revisited the content

•Literacy activities

•Students participated in making : Applesauce, apple crisp, observational sketches of apples and apple trees

Case Study: Farm Study Groups

Students broke into 4 small study groups to conduct a case study

Four kinds of farms:• apiaries• vegetable farms • dairy farms• poultry farms

Each group:• Visited their farm and met with farmers • Researched and Studied• Dramatic play• Sketched and labeled• Collected and analyzed data Students grew their own vegetables

and learned the value of healthy eatingFarms and Food Model Expedition: Grade 1

Young Achievers Sciences and Mathematics Pilot SchoolBoston, MA

•Class Project: The Farm Book

•Each study group: wrote one chapter

•Each student: wrote and illustrated one page, with accurate headings, labels and captions

Farms and Food Model Expedition: Grade 1; Young Achievers Sciences and Mathematics Pilot School; Boston,MA

Part Two: Access to Healthy FoodCase Study: Migrant Farm Workers •Focus on social justice: •Read a number of accounts of migrant farmworkers’ lives

•Reviewed the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

•Compared him with César Chávez and Dolores Huerta

Contrasted living conditions of farm owners and farmworkers

•Presented what they had learned at the school’s annual social justice assembly.

• Case Study: Access to Food in Boston

• Explore: what happens when people do not have access to food.

• Read: books about homeless people and animals

• Make connections: to the living conditions of migrant farmworkers

• Visit: ReVision House, a homeless shelter for women and children

• Recreate: components of the shelter (aquaculture tanks, greenhouses, etc.)

• Interview: someone at a community agency that helps people in the city get access to healthy food, including questions to help them understand how to help people gain access to healthy food.

Project: Healthy Food Calendar

Students brainstormed solutions to hunger

The twelve most important ideas became the twelve months of the calendar Final calendar illustrations:• Professionally printed • Donated to the study group agencies • Sold in the community