United Sixth Grade Garden & Cooking Club Curriculum

Summary: 

Sixth graders at Arts & Letters United in Brooklyn, New York will receive ten interactive workshops in the garden and kitchen as part of the Middle School Garden & Cooking Club. Their garden experience begins with orienting students to the space, creating a shared understanding of expectations, and teaching them fundamental gardening and cooking skills. They then explore a number of food and garden subjects, including soil composition, flower biology, food safety and preparation, and more. We were deeply influenced and guided by the amazing team at Edible Schoolyards in developing this curriculum.

Fall

1. Respect and Equity in the Garden | Garden Classroom | Grades 6 – 8 | Garden Orientation, Classroom Culture, Behavioral Expectations

2. Sticky Steps | Garden Classroom | Grades 6 – 8 | Observation, Garden Orientation, Garden Names

3. Compost & Soil Lab | Garden Classroom | Grades 6 – 8 | Decomposition, Compost, Living Soil

4. Bees, Bugs, and Pollinators | Garden Classroom | 6 – 8 | Bees, Pollinators, Insects, Plant Life Cycle

5. Apples & Apple Cider | Garden Classroom | Grades 6 – 8 | Seasonality, Harvesting, Teamwork, Transition to Kitchen & Cooking

Winter

6. Kitchen Orientation | Kitchen Classroom | Grades 6 – 8 | Kitchen Rituals and Routines, Student Orientation

7. Silk Route: Chinese Steamed Dumplings | Kitchen Classroom | Grades 6 – 8 | Silk Road, Trade, Flexible Recipes

8. Silk Route: Indian Vegetable Curry | Kitchen Classroom | Grades 6 – 8 | Cultural Exchange, Trade, Cooking Rates

9. Silk Route: Roman Homemade Pasta with Classic Marinara Sauce | Kitchen Classroom | Grades 6 – 8 | Trade, Global Food Routes, Rome

10. Silk Route: Trading for Salt | Kitchen Classroom | Grades 6 – 8 | Trade, Teamwork, Cultural Exchange

Session 1: Respect & Equity in the Garden

PLACE OF LEARNING: School Garden  | DURATION: 20 minutes | GRADE LEVEL: 6 – 8

Summary: 

In this sixth grade orientation, the garden committee brings props and visual aids into the garden as a way to introduce the expectations for their upcoming garden classes, and instill clear behavioral boundaries with a shared language. We introduce the United 6C’s as they pertain to the garden: Community, Courage, Compassion, Creativity, Curiosity, Clarity. We ideally lead this short orientation as a way to clearly communicate expectations, while getting them comfortable and prepared for their first hands-on class in the school garden class.

Student Learning Goals & Objectives: 

After this lesson, students will be able to:

  • Use the 6C’s poster as a guide to explain the behavioral expectations in the garden

  • Comprehend the school garden rituals and routines 

  • Prepare for their first real hands-on class

Assessments: 

During this lesson, students will:

  • Share real-life examples while reviewing and using the language in the 6C’s poster 

  • Communicate the values intrinsic in the school garden: collaboration, equity, respect and teamwork

Materials & Prep: 

MATERIALS

  • Assorted garden tools

  • Herb plants

  • “Respect in the Garden” Visual Aid Poster that is displayed in our school garden

  • United 6C’s Poster

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

  • Create the visual aid 

  • Collect and prepare all the materials

  • Print the United 6C’s Poster

Procedure Steps: 

IN THE GARDEN: 20 MINUTES

INTRODUCTION

Introduce yourself as one of the garden committee members or chairs and ask students if they know the school’s 6C’s. Point out the visual aid, and explain that this is what the 6C’s look like in the garden.

Community & Clarity 

Ask if there is a volunteer that is willing to read this section of the visual aid to the group.

  1. Ask if anyone has an example of why we ask students to ask before picking. Explain that asking before eating garden crops is critical to students' safety. ​​​​​​

  2. Explain that the kitchen classroom needs to have enough food for planned lessons.

  3. All crops taste best when they are ripe and ready to eat.

  4. Point out that some seasonal herbs are exceptions to this rule: these are things that students are allowed to pick and eat without asking.

Courage & Compassion

Ask if there is a volunteer that is willing to read this section of the visual aid to the group.  

  1. Ask students to volunteer ideas of how they can show respect to insects, plants, and each other. Ask students for suggestions on how they can be an ally in the garden and clarify as needed.

  2. Introduce the values that are especially applicable in the garden: teamwork, collaboration, and open-mindedness. Ask students how they can demonstrate these in the garden.

  3. Demonstrate the safest way to harvest an herb plant.

Creativity & Curiosity

Ask if there is a volunteer that is willing to read this section of the visual aid to the group.

  1. Demonstrate how to use the tools responsibly and safely. Ask students what some of the possible consequences of using tools incorrectly or irresponsibly could be. It’s also fun to demonstrate what NOT to do in your demonstration and ask students to give you feedback. "What’s wrong with the way I’m holding this tool?"

  2. Encourage students to explore what creativity looks like in the garden and kitchen.

CLOSING

Ask students to contribute other ideas that could be included on the "Respect in the Garden" poster.

  1. Encourage students to look for ways to demonstrate the 6C’s in the garden.

  2. Explain that this is our contract together and ask students to sign their name (in the air) saying we all agree these 6C’s in the garden setting.

Vocabulary: 

  • Teamwork

  • Open-mindedness

  • Collaboration

Teaching Notes: 

  • We have found that a team of two committee members works best to deliver this brief presentation (approximately 20 minutes). One goes over the poster and the other handles the herbs and tool demonstrations.

  • It’s really exciting for students to meet you and get excited about the year to come.

  • After we present our behavioral expectations, students are ready for the hands-on experience of their first garden class.

Session 2: Sticky Steps

Summary: 

In this first 6th grade session, students encounter the garden as a classroom. They meet the garden committee, tour the garden, learn the basic systems and routines of the garden classroom, and are introduced to the expectations for learning in an outdoor setting. Students work together in small groups to explore the garden, pose questions and make discoveries.

Student Learning Goals & Objectives: 

After this lesson, students will be able to:

  • Find their way around the garden 

  • Identify the garden staff and each other by name

  • Describe the garden, its basic infrastructure, and its basic routines

Assessments: 

During this lesson, students will: 

  • Tour the garden by participating in the Sticky Steps activity

  • Play the Garden Name Game

Materials & Prep: 

MATERIALS

  • Respect in the Garden Visual Aid

  • Job Board 

  • Sample sticky notes for the Sticky Steps

  • Prompts for Closing Circle activity

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

  • Create and hang the Respect in the Garden poster in the opening circle location

  • Create the Job Board, listing "Sticky Steps" as today's only job 

  • Create and set up the Sticky Steps activity

Session 3: Compost & Soil

Summary: 

In this class, students will begin to understand how soil is created and the process of decomposition by learning about the organisms responsible for breaking down matter. Students will also begin to make the connection with finished compost as food for plants in the garden.

Student Learning Goals & Objectives: 

After this lesson, students will be able to:

  • Explain the different layers in a compost pile (browns, greens, food scraps, manure, water, and air)

  • Identify the organisms responsible for decomposition, the FBI (fungus, bacteria, invertebrates)

  • Explain the process of decomposition

  • Explain the importance of compost and soil

Assessments: 

During this lesson, students will:

  • Discuss and label the necessary components of the compost pile using the Compost Cake visual aid (browns, greens, food scraps, manure, water, and air)

  • Discuss the organisms responsible for decomposition (fungus, bacteria, and invertebrates)

  • Identify and discuss compost at several different stages from food scraps to fertile soil

  • Discuss that making compost piles speeds up decomposition, reduces waste, and replenishes soil

  • Discuss the wider city composting initiatives and what those entail

Session 4: Bees, Bugs & Pollinators

Summary: 

In this lesson, students study insects and bees in the garden and the important role of pollinators while discovering the many insects that are important in the life cycle of plants around NYC.

Student Learning Goals & Objectives: 

After this lesson, students will be able to:

  • Feel comfortable around insects and bees in the garden setting.

  • Explain the benefits of having insects in the garden.

Assessments: 

During this lesson, students will:

  • Safely observe native bees and insects in the garden and neighborhood.

Session 5: Apples & Apple Cider

Summary: 

In this sixth-grade seasonal lesson, students use teamwork to collectively harvest apples from our school orchard (or local apple orchard), and then press cider as they learn about apples, harvesting, and safe food handling,

Student Learning Goals & Objectives: 

After this lesson, students will be able to:

  • Recognize seasonality in apples.

  • Formulate an observation of the cider.

  • Understand how to measure volume using displacement.

  • Learn the basics of food safety.

Assessments: 

During this lesson, students will:

  • Name the season apples are ripe in and the cycle of pollination to fruit.

  • Describe the finished apple cider using one of their five senses.

  • Collectively make a hypothesis on the volume of apples and then find the volume by reading the measurement after the displacement activity.

  • Safely handle food and equipment.

Session 6: Kitchen Orientation

PLACE OF LEARNING: Kitchen Classroom | DURATION: 90 minutes | GRADE LEVEL: 6 – 8

Summary: 

This lesson introduces sixth-grade students to the kitchen classroom. Students meet staff, explore the kitchen, learn the basic rules and systems, and practice setting the table to eat a garden snack. Students mark the transition from the garden to the kitchen by harvesting herbs to make herbal tea that they drink with their snack. While eating, they share a food memory.

Student Learning Goals & Objectives: 

After this lesson, students will be able to:

  • Name and locate the basic tools and equipment in the kitchen.

  • Practice implementing basic kitchen routines.

  • Use descriptive language and sensory details to describe a food memory.

Assessments: 

During this lesson, students will:

  • Accurately identify the basic tools and equipment in the kitchen.

  • Set the table, compost food scraps, and correctly use and respect the space.

  • Share a personal food memory using descriptive language and sensory details.

Materials & Prep: 

FOR THE OPENING

  • Respect in the kitchen visual aid

  • Kitchen Question cards

  • Food memory worksheet 

INGREDIENTS

  • Seasonal fruits or vegetables

  • Tea herbs

TOOLS

  • Toolbox

  • Heavy-bottomed induction pot (for heating water for tea on the stove)

  • Teapot

  • Teacups

  • Tablecloth

  • Water pitchers

  • Cups

  • Plates

  • Napkins

  • Forks

  • Knives

EQUIPMENT

  • Induction stove (or electric kettle, for heating water for tea)

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

  • Create the visual aid

  • Prepare a seasonal garden snack

  • Heat water for tea

  • Coordinate Food Memory activity with students' classroom teacher

Procedure Steps: 

FULL GROUP, 7-12 MINUTES

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

Welcome students and divide them into three table groups.

  1. Table groups are color-coded: green, red, and blue. Students remain in the same table group for the duration of their kitchen rotation. 

  2. Introduce kitchen staff, volunteers, and all facilitators of the lesson. Have a student volunteer from each table group choose a question from the question cards to ask each staff member as they introduce themselves. 

  3. Describe what students can expect in the kitchen – cooking and eating together!

  4. Emphasize the students’ transition from the garden to the kitchen, and invite them to share examples of plants they saw growing in the garden throughout the fall. Explain that they’ll get to see how the kitchen and garden interact. "We’ll be eating produce that comes from the garden, which means we’ll be eating 'seasonally'.”

  5. Discuss the behavior expectations in the kitchen. Emphasize that the 6C's (Community, Courage, Compassion, Creativity, Curiosity, Clarity) for the kitchen are the same as in the garden and their academic classrooms. 

TABLE GROUPS, 60-70 MINUTES

TABLE GROUP ORIENTATION

Introduce students to the kitchen's infrastructure and systems. 

  • Break into table groups, and lead a small-group check-in. Explicitly name the rules and expectations for the group check-in:

    • Listen actively to the speaker,

    • Do not interrupt or comment on people’s answers 

    • Move quickly from one speaker to the next 

  • Pose a check-in question. (e.g. "What is your comfort food?")

  • Go on a walking tour of important kitchen features and systems (e.g. recycling and compost row, dish tower, dish cabinet, the altar, spice table, metro shelf, oven, fridge, bussing station and dishwasher.)

    • While on the tour, prompt students to reflect on each system 

  • Bring students outside to the herb garden. Have every student pick two leaves to bring inside, wash, and add to a teapot for herbal tea.

  • Return to table groups and give students time to explore their cooking stations and toolboxes.

    • While at the cooking stations, challenge students to find one tool or item that everyone recognizes, and one tool or item that no one in the group is familiar with.

    • While exploring the toolboxes, ask students to report on their findings using the "I notice, I wonder, It reminds me of" sentence frame. Introduce the reflection cards.

  • Quiz the group after exploration time to help them recall the names, uses, and locations of basic tools, ingredients, and equipment.

  • Explain to students that they are responsible for cleaning and maintaining the tables, the toolboxes, and the cooking stations.

PRACTICING KITCHEN RITUALS

Introduce students to the kitchen's rituals and routines. 

  1. Describe to students the items needed to set the table (tablecloth, centerpiece, tea cups, napkins, water, and cups). While students are setting the table, fill the teapot with boiling water and allow the tea to steep.

  2. Eat.

  3. While eating, encourage students to share a food memory, or use the question cards to engage the full group in shared conversation. 

  4. Flicker lights. Explain this is a way we get everyone’s attention. Announce that now it is time to transition into bussing dishes.

  5. Have students familiarize themselves with the kitchen systems by composting, bussing dishes, and refilling water pitchers.

FULL GROUP, 7-12 MINUTES

AT THE CLOSING CIRCLE

Students share food memories and have an opportunity to ask questions. 

  1. Invite students to share their food memories. 

  2. Invite students to share something they still wonder about the kitchen.

  3. Answer any remaining questions.

Session 7: Silk Route: Chinese Steamed Dumplings

Summary: 

In this sixth-grade cooking class and humanities lesson, students prepare Steamed Dumplings as they study the exchange of ideas, goods, and foods between China and other regions during the Han dynasty. This is the first of three Silk Route lessons.


Student Learning Goals & Objectives: 

After this lesson, students will be able to:

  • Cite examples of China’s contributions to the Silk Road.

  • Identify geographic features that isolated China before the Han Dynasty.

  • Explain why certain items were valuable for trade along the Silk Road.

Assessments: 

During this lesson, students will:

  • Name ideas, goods, and foods from China that were traded along the Silk Road.

  • Name a geographic feature that isolated China before the Han Dynasty.

Session 8: Silk Route: Indian Vegetable Curry

Summary: 

In this sixth-grade cooking and humanities lesson, students prepare Vegetable Curry as they study the ideas, goods, and foods that India shared with other regions along the Silk Road. This is the second of three Silk Route lessons.

Student Learning Goals & Objectives: 

After this lesson, students will be able to:

  • Cite examples of India’s contributions to the Silk Road.

  • Describe how religions in general, and Buddhism in particular, spread along the Silk Road.

  • Identify ingredients and practice tasting the results of the recipe.

Assessments: 

During this lesson, students will:

  • Name ideas, goods, and foods from India that were traded along the Silk Road.

  • Identify Buddhism as a religion that spread from India to China along the Silk Road and describe how the local culture and geography of each place impacted the depictions of Buddha.

  • Measure, toast, grind, and combine spices for the Vegetable Curry and taste and season the dish according to their preferences.

Session 9: Silk Route: Roman Homemade Pasta with Classic Marinara Sauce

Summary: 

In this sixth-grade cooking and humanities lesson, students prepare fresh pasta with handmade marinara sauce as they study the exchange of ideas, goods, and foods between Rome and other regions along the Silk Road. This is the third of three Silk Route lessons.

Student Learning Goals & Objectives: 

After this lesson, students will be able to:

  • Cite examples of Rome’s contributions to the Silk Road.

  • Make connections between the diets of historic cultures and foods we eat today.

  • Understand how the cooking process impacts the resulting product.

Assessments: 

During this lesson, students will:

  • Answer questions about the spread of Roman ideas, goods, and food along the Silk Road.

  • Learn that noodles and pasta were important foods in ancient Rome and China, and will describe their favorite way to eat noodles or pasta.

  • Carefully follow a precise process to make handmade noodles from scratch, and compare the taste and consistency of the handmade noodles with store-bought pasta.

  • Talk about the larger scope of global trade and tomatoes from the Americas.

Session 10: Soup Party

Summary: 

In this sixth-grade lesson, students prepare a soup with vegetables from the local winter farmer’s market while they practice knife skills and learn the basics of making stock. Then they serve the soup to a handful of invited friends or family members for the final end of the winter dinner party.

Student Learning Goals & Objectives: 

After this lesson, students will be able to:

  • Understand how to make vegetable stock.

  • Demonstrate basic knife skills and care.

  • Read and follow a recipe to make Winter Root Soup.

  • Taste the soup and adjust seasoning.

  • Allow students to add their own cultural seasonings as well.

Assessments: 

During this lesson, students will: 

  • Prepare the vegetables for the Winter Root Soup, and sort the remaining parts for the stockpot or the compost 

  • Choose the proper tool for the job 

  • Follow the recipe to completion 

  • Taste and season the soup 

  • Share the unique seasonings from their family and culture

  • Set the table and serve the soup