Food or Fibre?

We are learning to name the plant or animal that food and fibre started as, and to tell food from fibre.

Before you startAbout 60 minutes · what success looks like · notes for the helper

About 60 minutes. It's fine to stop after the Quick Check and come back another day: the lesson opens where you left it, at the Quick Check.

You'll know you've got it when

I can explain what 'food' and 'fibre' mean and sort household things into food or fibre
I can name the living thing — a plant or an animal — that a food, a piece of clothing or a wooden thing started from
I can keep asking 'and before the shop?' until I reach a plant or an animal

For the helperhow to sit beside this lesson, and what this step is for

This step: Spark

Start with the question at the top and chat about it. There is no wrong answer here: it gets your learner thinking about what they already know.

Getting ready: A small pile of ten or so household things to handle and look at — bread, a carton of milk, an egg, a jar of honey, a cotton t-shirt or tea towel, a woollen sock or beanie, a wooden spoon — and a few clothing labels to read. About 60 minutes, more than one comfortable sitting at this age; many families stop after the check and do the chosen task the next day, and a bigger task can carry on into a short second sitting.
What understanding sounds like: Listen for your child naming a living thing at the start of the chain ('wheat', 'a hen', 'a cotton plant', 'a sheep') rather than stopping at the shop or the factory. A chain said backwards, step by step, is the thing to listen for.
A likely mix-up, and something that helps: The common belief at this age is that food and clothes come from the shop, or that the factory is where they start. You might keep asking the same friendly question — 'And before the shop? And before that?' — until you both reach a plant or an animal. Honey and the wooden spoon are good for a chat: honey is made by an animal working with plants, and the spoon came from a plant but is neither food nor fibre.
If it comes easily: If there is appetite for more, you might look at the labels on a few clothes together and find one that says polyester or nylon, then ask where that one started. It is a good way into the idea that some fibres are made in factories rather than grown.
If it's a struggle: If it is a struggle, one way is to start with just three things: one food from a plant, one food from an animal and one piece of clothing, and trace those back together before going on to the rest. Food and fibre are the two words the lesson rests on, and 'fibre' has a second everyday meaning, so it can help to say both meanings in your home language as well. If your child would rather not sort today, tracing one thing back while you draw the chain is enough.

Step 1 of 6 · Spark

Lesson 1 of 5 · From Paddock to Pantry: How Food and Fibre Are Produced

And before the shop?

For the helper

Start with the question at the top and chat about it. There is no wrong answer here: it gets your learner thinking about what they already know.

Pick up a slice of bread, or a cotton t-shirt. Ask yourself: where did this come from? Most people say, 'The shop.' But the shop did not make it, and the shop did not grow it. It was only a stop along the way. So where did it start? Before you read on, choose one thing near you that you can eat or wear, and write down every place it has been, starting with where you are and working backwards. How far back can you get?

The shop is a stop on the journey, not the start of it.