Key Stage 1 design and technology · Cooking and nutrition

KS1 where food comes from: a guide for parents

In Years 1 and 2, children learn that all the food we eat starts with plants or animals, and that it makes a journey before it reaches the table. They look at familiar foods such as bread, milk, eggs and apples, trace them back to a field, a farm or the sea, and often grow something themselves. It is the starting point for cooking and for the more detailed work on how food is produced in Key Stage 2.

Where food comes from, explained

The programme of study for design and technology says that Key Stage 1 pupils should be taught to understand where food comes from. That is all the curriculum says at this stage, so schools decide how to teach it. As part of their work with food, pupils are also taught how to cook and apply the principles of nutrition and healthy eating, so this topic usually runs alongside making a simple dish. More detail about how ingredients are grown, reared, caught and processed comes in Key Stage 2.

The big idea for young children is that food comes from plants or animals. Fruit and vegetables grow on plants and trees, and some parts we eat grow above the ground, such as apples, peas and lettuce leaves, while others grow below it, such as carrots and potatoes. Cereals such as wheat and rice are grown as crops. Flour is made by grinding the grains of wheat, which is why bread and pasta also begin as plants. Many children are surprised to learn that a crisp started as a potato.

Animals give us foods such as milk, eggs and meat, and fish are caught in the sea or rivers, or raised on fish farms. Milk can be turned into cheese, butter and yoghurt, and honey comes from bees. Meat comes from animals too, and teachers present this factually and respectfully. Many families eat no meat, for reasons of belief, health or preference, and children are taught that people eat different foods for different reasons.

Children also learn that food travels. A common way to show it is a simple chain, sometimes called farm to fork: grown or reared on a farm, taken to a mill, dairy or factory where it may be made into something else, delivered to a shop or market, and finally brought home and cooked. Some foods are grown in this country, such as potatoes, apples and wheat. Others, such as bananas, need a warmer climate and travel here from other parts of the world.

To make the idea real, many classes grow something. Cress on damp paper, beans in a jar or herbs in a pot all show a seed becoming something we can eat. Many schools also visit a farm or a market, or invite someone who grows or bakes food to talk to the class.

Words your child will hear

Crop: A plant that farmers grow to be harvested for food, such as wheat or potatoes.
Harvest: To gather a crop when it is ready to eat. It also means the crop itself.
Ingredient: One of the foods that go into a dish or product.
Flour: A powder made by grinding grains such as wheat. It is used to make bread, pasta and cakes.
Dairy: Foods made from milk, such as cheese, butter and yoghurt.
Label: The writing on packaging that tells you what is inside and sometimes where it was grown or made.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 1 says:

Pupils should be taught to understand where food comes from
As part of their work with food, pupils should be taught how to cook and apply the principles of nutrition and healthy eating.

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: following a cheese sandwich back to the farm

A teacher asks, “Where does a cheese sandwich come from?” Answer by splitting it into parts and tracing each one back to the start.

Split the sandwich into its parts, because each part has its own journey.
```
Bread
Butter
Cheese
```
Trace the bread. Bread is made from flour. Flour is made by grinding the grains of wheat, a plant that farmers grow in fields and harvest in late summer. The grain goes to a mill to be ground into flour. A baker mixes the flour with water and other ingredients and bakes it.
```
Wheat field > mill > bakery
```
Trace the butter and the cheese. Both are made from milk. Cows (and sometimes goats or sheep) are kept on farms and milked. Cheese is made from the milk in a dairy, and butter is made by churning the cream from the milk.
```
Farm > dairy
```
Add the rest of the journey. The bread and the dairy foods are put into lorries and taken to shops. Someone buys them and takes them home, where they are made into a sandwich.
```
> shop > your kitchen
```
Finish by sorting the parts. The bread started as a plant. The butter and the cheese started with an animal.

The bread comes from wheat, a plant grown in a field, which is milled into flour and baked. The butter and cheese come from the milk of cows kept on a farm. So one sandwich needs both plants and animals, and a lot of people, to reach the plate.

Common mistakes and how to help

“Food comes from the supermarket”

For many children the shop is the place they always see food, so it seems to be where food starts.

What helps: Ask what was there before the shop. Follow one item at a time back to a field, a farm or the sea, and look at the label for clues.

Thinking all vegetables grow in the same way

Children often see vegetables only as washed and cut pieces, so they have no sense of the plant they came from.

What helps: Show pictures or real plants. Peas grow in pods above the ground, carrots and potatoes grow underneath, and lettuce grows leaf by leaf. Growing a plant makes it clear.

Thinking foods such as crisps, fish fingers or biscuits are made from nothing, or only in factories

Processed foods look quite different from the plants or animals they began as, so the link isn’t obvious.

What helps: Read the ingredients list together. Crisps are potatoes, fish fingers contain fish, and biscuits contain flour made from wheat. Factories change food, but they don’t invent it.

Assuming that everything we eat is grown nearby

Everything in the shop looks equally available, so children assume it was all grown in this country.

What helps: Look at labels for the country where food was grown or packed. Bananas, for example, grow in warm places and travel a long way.

How to help at home

Grow some cress. Sprinkle cress seeds on damp kitchen paper or cotton wool on a saucer and keep it on a windowsill. Within days your child can watch it grow, then snip and eat it in a sandwich. Wash hands after handling.
Trace a favourite food. Pick one thing your child likes, such as a boiled egg, a banana or pasta, and ask where it started. Draw the journey together in a few pictures from farm to plate.
Plant or animal? When unpacking the shopping, ask your child to sort items into foods that began as plants and foods that began with an animal. Some items, like pizza, will be a mixture, which makes for a good chat.
Read the labels. Look for the country where something was grown or made and find it on a map or globe. Talk about which foods grow near you and which need warmer weather.
Visit a market or farm shop. With an adult, look at fruit and vegetables that haven’t been packaged. Ask the seller what grows locally at this time of year. Seeing food with soil on it is memorable for young children.

Leads on to

Key Stage 2: Healthy and varied diet
Key Stage 2: Cooking savoury dishes
Key Stage 2: Seasonal food
Key Stage 2: Grown, reared, caught, processed