Four Seasons

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

Graphic split into four sections depicting spring with a blue sky, summer with a bright sun, autumn with brown leaves and winter with snow

Discuss and learn about seasonality and the benefit of eating food 'in season'

Activity Type
Activity type Card activity
Duration
Two sessions of 30 - 40 minutes
Age and stage
S1–S3

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

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.

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