Food Glorious Food!

Wow! We have so much to share with you in MPP for this blog. The first thing we would like to do is say a big hello and welcome to our new friend Anaya who has joined us from India! We hope that you have enjoyed your first week at your new school.

So, when we returned from the autumn break we began to learn about our IPC topic ‘Food’. Our entry point was a wonderful trip to a vegetarian restaurant where we were able to visit the kitchens and choose exactly what we wanted on our plates. The children were wonderful and the food was great too! When we returned from our trip we began to make our classroom café and decided to call it 'Sunshine Café'!

We were also able to share some food from our home countries and enjoyed some wonderful cookies, biscuits, bread, muffins and a choice of yummy Chinese food and tea too! The children really enjoyed sharing their food with their friends.

We also made some food, including pizza, a smoothie, and a Gruffalo (apple) crumble! We tried the different ingredients before and after and learnt about how the taste can change once cooked or mixed with other foods. We were introduced to some new herbs and spices like basil and cinnamon and we saw how a food can go from a solid (tomatoes) to a liquid (tomato sauce). We loved seeing how food changes and making our own food together. We were also able to share our pizza with our buddy class (MP) and in return they read us a lovely story.

We learnt about the difference between a fruit and a vegetable and what foods are healthy and healthy. We looked at which foods we can eat 'a lot', 'sometimes' or only 'a little bit' of each week. We were all very sad to see that chocolate is part of the ‘little bit’ plate!

We looked at different fruit and vegetables and explored what they smelt like, felt like and we also carried out an experiment to see which fruit or vegetables float. We learnt that if an object has air inside it, it should float! We then found lots of ways to use our fruit and vegetables, using them to create picture with paint and making pens out of carrots so that we could write our names! We then learnt about recycling food and how we don’t need to throw everything away. We learnt about compost bins and then we made our own!

We also explored how fruits and vegetables grow, learning that some grow on trees or stalks and some grow underground. We learnt that all plants need nutrients from the earth, water and light to grow. We also learnt about farmers and how they grow the food, collect it and then take it to the market or supermarket to be sold.

For our exit point we visited a café on Thursday, we were able to eat some lovely homemade apple cake and drink some chocolate milk or orange juice. The woman who ran the café sang us a song, dressed up and we could dress up and play too! All the children had lots of fun and it was a wonderful way to finish our Food unit.

We have also learnt about two new personal goals, resilience and cooperation. We learnt all about not giving up when we find something difficult and how we can ask for help or try and find another way to do something. We learnt about expressing ourselves when we feel sad or angry and talking to someone we trust so that they can try and help us to feel better. We learnt about working together and listening to each other’s ideas and thoughts. When we listen to each other we can usually then resolve any conflicts by trying to work together to make a situation better.

We have been reviewing our letters from the start of the year to make sure we don’t forget about them. The children have worked so well on remembering their letter sounds and have been learning lots of new words too!

We also want to take a moment to say goodbye to two wonderful members of our ISG and MPP family. Ming Ming and Julka you have been a joy to share the start of the year with. We will miss you very much and we all hope and wish the best for you and your futures!

Finally I would like to wish you all a fantastic and joyful winter break. I hope that you all get some well-deserved rest and enjoy your celebrations. I look forward to seeing you all when we return in January!