Competition for pre-school settings and primary schools
Competition brief: Plant a rainbow of carrots!
There are three main objectives for this year’s competition:
- to continue to develop the concept of seed varieties for a fruit or vegetable;
- to continue to develop the skills of fair comparison – comparingone variety of carrots with other varieties in a fair way;
- to develop vocabulary and mathematical skills.
What will you grow?
The focus this year will be on developing the children’s understanding and knowledge of the concept of varieties of seeds, using carrots as an example.
The aim is to provide experience of growing carrots so the children begin to understand that different varieties of carrots have different characteristics, for example whether they:
- vary in how easy or difficult they are to grow;
- develop diseases when growing or suffer from insect infestations;
- all yield differing or similar amounts of carrots;
- are easy or difficult to prepare for cooking;
- respond similarly to different cooking methods;
- vary from each other in terms of colour, taste and texture, whether eaten raw or cooked.
What we will deliver to you straight after the February half term
– Four packets of carrot seeds of different varieties:
- Carrot Sugar Snax – these are our control carrots (ones that produce carrots that look like the ones generally available in shops)
- Carrot Yellowstone
- Carrot Purple Hybrid
- Carrot Purple Dragon.
– One bag of peat-free compost per entry, kindly donated by Farlow Farm Nursery, enough to fill four containers, one for each carrot variety.
– A piece of horticultural fleece to cover the seeds to keep them warm until the outside temperature begins to rise, which may be as late as April.
Important Notes
- Carrot seeds take around 16 weeks to germinate, so they need to be planted early. On each seed packet, you will see that the recommended start date for sowing is March, but you can start them off as soon as you receive your seeds, so long as they are sown in pots and kept relatively warm.
- Therefore, it’s best to sow them as soon as you are ready in large pots, or containers such as large buckets (make sure there are drainage holes), deep enough for the carrots to grow, so aim at a depth of compost of around 300cm or more.
- Sow the seeds VERY THINLY.
- Keep the containers indoors (though not too warm) and cover with fleece or any other material to keep the seeds relatively warm. Check periodically to make sure they’re not drying out.
- As they grow, thin the seeds out so each plant left in the container has enough room to continue to grow, leaving about 2cm between each plant.
- There will be plenty of seeds left after your first sowing that you can use for successive sowings if you want to or even wait until the soil outside warms up and sow some in the soil or raised beds if you have these facilities. The children can then compare carrots grown at different times and in different environments if you wish to extend their experience.
Planning the activity
The competition will enable you to incorporate many of the aspects of the Early Years Foundation Stage and the science aspects of the National Curriculum as well as, for all children, the development of their vocabulary as they assess the colour, taste and texture of the carrots and their mathematical skills associated with measuring yields, calculating wastage of the carrots during preparation and the relative costs involved in purchasing carrots compared with ‘growing your own’.
As last year, we shall also provide support materials on sensory testing of foods (taste, texture, aroma and so on) as the project progresses.
How to record progress?
From the outset, the children should keep a log of their activities, either individually or as a group. They can use information technology, writing, oral work, photography and any other recording and communication methods they wish. The log should contain as much evidence of children’s activities as feasible, either as individuals or in working groups, to show how the activity has developed their knowledge, skills and understanding, for example through:
- keeping on trying if they encounter difficulties, creating and developing their own ideas and developing strategies for doing things;
- asking simple questions and recognising that they can be answered in different ways;
- observing closely and carrying out simple tests;
- using their observations and ideas to suggest answers to questions and gathering and recording data to help in answering questions;
- for older children, recording findings using simple scientific language, drawings, labelled diagrams, keys, bar charts, tables and information technology.
They can decide how to present their log and what to put in it to show: the key events; any growing problems and how they solved them; any advice they sought; how the growing conditions influenced their crops; and their overall successes and failures.
When is Judging?
Due to personal circumstances, judging will take place week beginning 15 June when the judges will visit, look at the logs and discuss the activities with the children who have taken part. We shall focus on four key aspects that arise from the brief, taking account of the children’s ages and abilities:
- developing knowledge and understanding;
- applying knowledge and understanding;
- recording and evaluating;
- preparing, cooking and eating. It is important that the young carrots are eaten, both raw and cooked, to see the effects of cooking on the colours as well as textures and flavours.
Support
Practical support and advice will be provided as required. Queries and questions can be emailed to flo.hadley@btinternet.com who will ensure help is provided. Further guidance will be provided after Easter with examples of key points to be covered within each of the four key aspects to clarify what the judges will be considering when making their decisions.