Our nutrition and food unit study had tons of hands-on learning in the kitchen, but we also introduced fractions, lots of sensorial work, and of course plenty of language work as well!
For our nutrition and food unit study, we talked all about how different foods are good for different parts of our body, to what makes a food fit into a specific food group. We also talked about how diverse food is and what different kinds of cooking looks like!
Does your preschooler like to help cook?! That was a major part of our food group unit study! Hands-on learning for the win!
Books will always be a huge part of our homeschool unit studies
You can find all of the food group and diverse cooking books that we used for our homeschool preschool space unit study that we used in this post! There were so many I just couldn’t put everything in one post
When I’m planning a unit study, I tend to plan about 10-12 activities to have on our work shelf and I try to have two of each of five major categories. This lesson plan will last us 2-3 weeks of “school” time.
Language– this could be things like working with a movable alphabet or introducing new vocabulary with three-part cards or phonics games
Numbers– this could be working with our colored beads, our red and blue rods, bead hangers or math link cubes
Sensorial – this is where you’ll see a lot of the traditional Montessori sensorial materials, things like the brown stair and the pink tower, knobbed cylinders, and knobless cylinders, but we’ll also have things that will work on differentiating size or weight.
Fine motor– this is where you’ll see things like beating lacing, sewing, cutting, and tracing
Other– this category sort of acts as an overflow for game schooling (bingo and memory), puzzles, and sorting activities. Really this is just where I plug in a couple more activities that I really want to add to the shelf even if they overlap with other categories.
Depending on how in-depth and how interested your little learner is could dictate if you need a rotation with further work on the topic
I only prepared one lesson plan for this unit as I knew we would be out of town for Thanksgiving for a week and when we got back I wanted to take a reset month to observe and have lots of time for fun holiday activities!
Disclamer
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Nutrition and Food Group Unit Study Works
We do a fair amount of baking with the girls and have come across times that it would be good if Bitty understood fractions a bit better so that was one of the goals when I sat down to plan our Homeschool Preschool Food Unit Study. I also wanted to include nutrition, because she has been asking ‘What does this have in it?’ ‘Why do we have to eat that?’
Language Works
Herb 3 part cards anddried herbs
We used them for matching activities as well as proper Montessori three-part lessons
My book of Food Groups
Each day we focused on a singular planet and sort of narrowed down the three or four most notable things about it. We then created a page in a blank book for her to be able to “read” after
Alphabet Roll with A-Z food cards
Using my DIY Alphabet roll and food cards we looked at the beginning letter of the food and matched it to the mat
Number Works
DIY fractions puzzle
we worked with this a fair amount noticing how some parts could mix and match like 1/2 and 1/4 but the 1/3 couldn’t.
DIY felt build a burger with recipe cards
The goal of this work was to have her pay attention to details and follow the “recipe” perfectly.
Sensorial Works
Eating the Rainbow Cutting Strips and Color Sorting
Some great fine motor work with the scissors and then observation skills to color match the foods
Smelling Bottle Matching
A DIY of a classic Montessori sensorial material using essential oil roller bottles with cotton wicks and oils for sent
a series of 3D posting puzzles that deal with the variations in width or length or a combination of those – my hope is always to entice Bitty to these, but she rarely does. Bean on the other hand greatly enjoys exploring them so I will take what I can get
Fine Motor Works
Tong Transfer of Food Counters
A rainbow of food counters (fruit & veggies) and a recycled tray for her to explore. Ideally, she will use the tongs to transfer the counters into the tray. Color sorting, patterns, grouping, and matching are all potential work to be done with this tray
DIYinsetsand smelly markers
Simple geometric stencils to trace. You can mix and match them to make more complex drawings as well. I left this out as she was using it so actively last month, but it got much less work during this unit
Other Works
Food Group Sorting
a standing pocket chart and cards covering the 5 major food groups, feature common foods for Bitty to sort
Farm Products Printable
A simple puzzle that shoes the pant food grows on, how it’s harvested, and what we turn it into.
Food Unit Study Tot School Work
A few of the activities that I put out on the shelf are very geared towards my 18-month-old, in case we are working at the shelves when she is awake. In total transparency, we aren’t often over here in the mornings so these activities have been mostly ignored by Bean, but Bitty will occasionally go to them and that’s fine too!
Cracking Eggs
wooden eggs with “yolk” pompoms to discover for a fine motor matching activity
fine motor and problem-solving toy – we also have a cheese one as well
Measuring Cups and Spoons
great for nesting together or sorting big and little
We did not partake in as many crafts this month, but we did lots of practical life hands-on kitchen work instead. I had a few crafts picked out in case we weren’t up for a mess in the kitchen and I will share those!
Preschool Food Unit Study Craft Ideas
Preschool Food Unit Study Sensory Play
Need more ideas for a preschool Nutrition and Food Unit Study?!?
Then you should definitely check out myHomeschool Preschool Nutrition and Food Board on Pinterest! It’s full of these ideas and so many more others that we just didn’t have time for!
Our homeschool food unit study taught us both something
One of the things that I love the most about homeschooling Bitty is that I am learning right along with her. Things I have forgotten or things I never knew! I always end up learning something with her! We learned so much about what different foods do for our body and what cooking and eating looks like all over the world and that is just super interesting!!!
