Visit ESOL
Online for a version of this unit designed to support students for whom English is an additional language.
This material was produced by the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ)
under contract to the Ministry of Education in 2000 and 2001. It was written
to assist teachers and schools in their delivery of the technology/ hangarau
curriculum statements. The project was jointly coordinated by personnel
from the Technology Education New Zealand (TENZ)
and National Association of Māori Mathematicians, Scientists and Technologists
(NAMMSAT) networks. Monitoring and evaluation of the material was carried
out by a national project advisory group.
Oreti Plains is a rural school in Central Southland with 43 students
ranging in age from 5 to 13 years. There are two multi-level classrooms
– room 1 with year 0 to year 4 students and room 3 with year 5 to
year 8 students. School planning encourages the children to work together
as a whole school in a range of learning experiences where the outcomes
are considered appropriate. Local and wider community involvement in programmes
of work at the school is encouraged. Registration for the UNICEF Play
Day provided the stimulus for the school and its community to work together
on two units of work relating to the technology curriculum.
The
planning process
In general, children from Oreti Plains school benefit from stable
and secure backgrounds. The involvement of the school in UNICEF Play
Day was seen as providing an opportunity for students to reflect on
this, and learn about and go a small way towards helping children
less fortunate than themselves.
The concept of UNICEF Play Day was introduced to the children. They discussed
the purpose of the day and why it would be appropriate to hold one at
the school. The children were encouraged to consider what would have to
be done to prepare for the day. This actively involved them in the planning
process.
Task definition
The decision was made to prepare and sell lunch for the wider and
local community and to organise a series of games and recreational
activities for them to play with the children in the afternoon following
lunch. The profit made from the lunch and extra donations from the
community would be donated to UNICEF.
The 18 year 0 to 4 students in room 1 accepted responsibility for the
organisation, preparation, and presentation of the lunch. Room 3 had responsibility
for the publicity and promotion of the Play Day.
Unit
1 – The lunch
Technological
areas: Food/Production and process technology
Context:
Our community
Achievement
objectives/outcomes:
The children will be able to discuss and explore the use
and operation of technologies relating to the preparation of
food. (AO 1.)
The children will be able to ask questions and share ideas
about systems used in the preparation and production of food.
(AO 2b.)
The children will observe and develop an understanding of the
work bakers and café owners do. (AO 3.)
The children will determine people's lunch preferences in
order to successfully provide lunch for them. (AO 5.)
The children will offer possible solutions and strategies
about the most efficient ways of preparing lunch for a large
group of people. (AO 6a.)
The children will prepare lunch safely and hygienically according
to their plan. (AO 6b.)
The children will develop an awareness of the reasons for
holding a UNICEF Play Day and the significance of food in this
event. (AO 7.)
Teaching/development
sequence
Children were asked to reflect on:
The type of food people would like to buy for their lunch.
How much food will need to be prepared?
What equipment is available at the school? What additional
equipment might be required?
Where can the food be prepared?
How can they ensure that the lunch is prepared in a safe and
healthy way?
Who may be available to help?
From where will the ingredients come? When will they be required?
When will the food need to be prepared?
What will be used to display the food before it is chosen and
purchased?
Where will the food be sold?
How much will the lunch items cost?
The children decided to develop a survey for people to fill in to determine
what their preferences were for lunch. They brainstormed the variety
of foods that people might like to buy for lunch and from this list
decided what it would be possible to prepare for sale. The survey was
developed from this list and sent home with the children for completion.
The completed surveys were analysed in class and decisions made about
the range of foods to be offered.
Contact was established with a local bakery and café and visits by groups
of children arranged to gather information about how food is prepared
and made available for sale professionally. Each of the groups took
the school video camera and the information gathered was shared with
the rest of the class. Discussion then took place on the range of equipment
which would be needed, efficient and safe ways of preparing large quantities
of food, and how the food could be presented to make it appealing.
Working out how much food to prepare presented a real problem:
...the owners of the café and bakery said they used a lot of experience
to determine their quantities ... something that we didn't have a great
deal of, in organising a special event such as this. Through a school newsletter
we asked families to inform us of how many people they knew that were likely
to join us for the UNICEF Play Day, and this gave us an indication of numbers
for catering. We decided that if each person had something hot, two sandwiches
or a filled roll, a piece of slice or a biscuit, a muffin and a drink ...
they would have a balanced and nutritious lunch.
Lynelle Woods, Principal
The Oreti Plains hall was picked as the ideal place to prepare the
food for the lunch. It had plenty of space, an oven and washing and
cleaning facilities – and the added advantage of being just across
the road from the school.
We looked at the prices that were charged at the bakery and the
café and also at the cost of some of the items on our lunch order
form that comes from the bakery and a local fish and chip shop.
We agreed on the prices to be set ... and in doing so took
account of the ease of giving and receiving the money and change.
The bread rolls were bought at the local bakery and the other ingredients
and necessities came from the local supermarket. This was purchased
with the help of an enthusiastic volunteer group. All perishables
had to be bought closer to the actual day.
The majority of the lunch preparation took place on the morning before
the Play Day. The enthusiastic team of two teachers, school secretary,
and the 18 eager and willing pairs of little hands set to their task.
The children worked in small groups, each supervised by an adult.
It was great to see and hear the children talking about and actually
using some of the techniques they had learned from their visit to the
bakery and café. They knew to spread the slices of bread out on
the working surface and concentrate on one sandwich filling at a time.
They remembered seeing one of the staff at the café using the end
piece of the bread to wipe their knife on from time to time. We had talked
about some children at our school being allergic to fish, and as one of
our sandwich fillings was salmon, they were very careful to make sure
this filling was prepared last and that the sandwiches were placed on
a tray by themselves... The children were very liberal with their pizza
toppings, and this reflected the generosity we had seen with toppings
on the toasties at the café and bakery!
Each family had been asked to involve their children in the preparation
of six pieces of slice, biscuits, or muffins at home prior to the morning
of the lunch preparation.
We were surprised and delighted at how quickly and smoothly the food
was prepared. The children were satisfied to see that we had arranged
for an electric knife to be brought along to cut the piles of sandwiches
– a technique noted from both visits to the bakery and café.
Large trays, platters, and baskets were used to place the food in so
it was easy to see and looked attractive to customers. The food was
then carefully transported back to school and the "school café"
set up in the classroom. The doors were opened, year 5 to 8 students
manned the checkouts and the customers flowed in. Throughout the afternoon
the school welcomed members of the school community, the wider community,
friends and relatives, television personnel, a newspaper photographer,
and two members of the Southland rugby team. Students were rewarded
with many positive compliments about the quality and price of their
food.
Evaluation
This unit of work proved to be very rewarding ... We have had a number
of occasions where our community has been involved in programmes of work
at school, and on many of these occasions we have had an opportunity to
share food together ... Our children have come to learn about the significance
of providing food for events – and this unit provided an opportunity
to reinforce this idea ...
The response from the Winton Bakery and East Side café was great.
The staff talked with children about their technological practice
and answered their questions fully ... It was obvious that many
of the children have had opportunities to observe, investigate,
and use everyday technologies like ovens, microwaves, timers,
electric knives, mixers ...
Feedback from the children indicated their satisfaction with the
process and the quality and quantity of food prepared ... and
the unanimous consensus was that we should do something similar
every Friday!!!
