Explore the seasonality of foods and plan, prepare and cook a healthy meal using food currently in season
Four Seasons
Explore the seasonality of foods and plan, prepare and cook a healthy meal using food currently in season

Discuss and learn about seasonality and the benefit of eating food 'in season'
This activity requires food cards. Contact us to find out more about how to get food cards for your school.
- HWB 3-15a
- HWB 3-30a
- HWB 3-34a
- show an understanding of seasonality and its impact on consumers
- suggest balanced meals taking account of seasonality
Resources
- Food Cards*
- Four Seasons - pupil worksheet
- large sheets of paper for making a poster
- coloured markers
*If your school does not have a set of Food Cards, please request them from us at resources@fss.scot.
Setting up
- prepare pupil worksheets
- gather resources for pupils to make seasonality charts
Cross-curricular links
Technologies – ICT to enhance learning
Assessment opportunities
DO – In making the seasonality chart, do pupils place foods in correct seasons?
DO – Do posters show an understanding of the benefits of eating in season?
MAKE – Does the meal make use of food in season?
Consider CfE Bencharks, for example:
- explain factors that could influence choice of food, for example media, poverty, peer pressure, seasonality
Activities
- explain to pupils the idea of 'seasonality', a term to describe when certain foods are harvested and at their best flavour
- pupils research or use the backs of the given food cards to fill in the seasons pupil sheet, listing foods that are in season in Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter
- discuss with pupils why food can be better if it's eaten 'in season' locally – for example, better flavour, freshness, reduced pollution coming from transporting foods from around the world, supporting local economy
- produce seasonality chart incorporated into a poster encouraging the eating of seasonal foods for display in local supermarket – if class has access to computers, pupils could use appropriate software to produce seasonality chart for the poster
- pupils are then challenged to plan, prepare and cook a healthy meal using food currently in season
Differentiation
Support
Pupils can be given recipes for meals which contain foods that are in season.
Challenge
Internet/library research to add foods to the Seasons sheet that are not included in the food cards.