Potatoes in school!A guide to presenting to children, in and out of the classroom

www.potatoesforschools.org.uk

• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1_• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1 10/Mar/10 16:35 Page 1

Imagine the scene...

You walk in. There is a sudden flurry ofactivity as teachers silence a sea of youngfaces and draw their attention towards theirspecial visitor; from shuffling and distractionthe children settle, giving you their fullattention to see what this stranger is about.

Presenting to children can be a tremendouslyrewarding experience. But not everyone iscomfortable with speaking to large groups ofpeople – even if they are only youngsters! Sowe’ve created this booklet to help you preparefor your talk on potatoes; making theexperience easy and enjoyable and to leave alasting impression on the pupils.

It is through the continued support fromexternal visitors that teachers are able to reallybring the ‘Grow Your Own Potatoes’ project tolife for children. Potato Council hopes that thisguide helps to facilitate that process.

We hope you enjoy it as much as they do!

• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1_• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1 10/Mar/10 16:35 Page 2

3

Contents

About ‘Grow Your Own Potatoes’ 4

Educating the next generation 5

Getting started 6

Preparing your presentation 7

Add interest through interaction 8

Ice breakers and warm-up activity 9

Additional classroom activities 10

‘True or False’ health quiz 11

Fascinating potato facts 12

What’s in a potato? 13

Practice makes perfect 14

Resources and useful contacts 15

• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1_• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1 10/Mar/10 16:35 Page 3

About ‘Grow Your Own Potatoes’

‘Grow Your Own Potatoes’ gives children thechance to experience growing their own foodand to find out where potatoes come from. Itis a simple activity, which can be undertakenin the classroom. The project can also helpchildren to learn more about healthy eating,and the role that the potato plays in ahealthy balanced diet. Schools can also lookat the many products that are made frompotatoes.

How does the project work?

Each participating school is supplied with seedpotatoes and a growing kit

The project starts in March and the crop isharvested in June

Schools can grow their potatoes in the classroomor outside

The project is curricular-based for children aged5–11 years

There is the opportunity for schools to win prizesfor growing the heaviest crop

The project is supported by resources linked to theformal curriculum which are available on PotatoCouncil’s educational website,www.potatoesforschools.org.uk.

There are also video clips which schools candownload and a ‘Potato Cam’ for schools tomonitor the progress of their potato plants againstthe Potato Council’s

Recruit your local school!

Remember, schools can register to take part in the project, which runsannually, by visiting the websitewww.potatoesforschools.org.uk

4

How youcan help

• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1_• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1 10/Mar/10 16:35 Page 4

5

Where do potatoes come from? Up until just a few years ago, unbelievably, six out of tenchildren thought they grew on trees!Thankfully, these attitudes have changedquite dramatically following the PotatoCouncil’s hugely successful ‘Grow Your OwnPotatoes’ project.

With the knowledge that children had difficultyunderstanding how the food they eat is grown and produced and how it ends up on the shelves oftheir local supermarket, ‘Grow Your Own Potatoes’was launched in 2005, supported by its owndedicated website www.potatoesforschools.org.uk.This unique project helps children get to grips withpotato production – and that of food in general –through a combination of fun, hands-on activity andtheory.

In addition to delivering these key messages, theproject also provides an ideal platform to educatechildren about healthy eating and the essential rolethat the potato plays in a balanced diet. By making adifference to the way they view food at a young age,we can help shape healthy eating habits that willstay with them as they grow, influencing their dietand purchasing habits in the future.

Talking to the children aboutpotatoes; how they grow, as wellas your role, can really helpbring the ‘Grow Your OwnPotatoes’ and similar projects tolife – and leave a lastingimpression on the pupils.

This guide is designed to help you preparefor your talk either in or out of theclassroom and to ensure that theexperience is enjoyable, both for you andthe children!

Educating the next generation

How youcan help

• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1_• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1 10/Mar/10 16:35 Page 5

Children’s ability toconcentrate varies:some can cope with alonger talk; others maystruggle after even afew minutes. Usingvisual aids and actively

involving the children in the talk canlengthen this time but it is worth askingthe teacher for how long they canconcentrate.

As a general rule, a 15-20 minute talk orpresentation should be manageable bymost primary aged children provided youhave plenty of interaction in your talk.

Between planting andharvesting, you couldalso become a schoolbuddy and answer anyqueries they may havewhile their plants are

growing, for example, how much waterdoes it need?

Feedback from teachers suggests that they are always lookingto find new and interesting opportunities for children to learnabout the countryside and farming; and your involvement canhelp the children understand more about how potatoes aregrown and how they reach the shops. Tie your visit in with theschool’s involvement in the ‘Grow Your Own Potatoes’ projectand help them with planting in March and harvesting in June.

Pitching your talkFirstly, it is important to get a clear understanding of what theteacher hopes the children will gain from your visit, forexample, you and your life in the sector might be as interestingto the children as the science behind how plants grow or theskills and machinery required to grow potatoes.

Make a list of the areas you will need to cover, such as:

What you doWhere do potatoes come fromHow plants – and potatoes – growThe food chain: from field to fork Healthy eating and the importance of potatoes Issues affecting the countryside

Find out the age of the class you will be visiting, as this willhave a bearing on their understanding and abilities. It is alsouseful to know how many children you will be addressing; willyou be in a classroom or a hall? Consider the following:

Avoid – or explain – jargonUse words that are in everyday use with simple sentenceconstructions and watch out for technical words. Children likenew words, but take time to explain them or check theyunderstand.

Keep an eye on timeMake sure you find out exactly how long you are expected totalk. Time your talk carefully, leaving plenty of time at the endfor questions. It is better to finish a few minutes early than togo over the time given.

Work within school guidelinesAll schools have set guidelines for visitors which you shouldask to read.

Getting started

6

Knowyour

audience

Becomea schoolbuddy

• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1_• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1 10/Mar/10 16:35 Page 6

Your talk or presentation needs to capture thechildren’s attention and a good clear beginning willhook them in from the outset. The middle should befilled out with lots of interesting facts, questionsand activity to involve the children. Finish yourtalk/presentation with a clear conclusion and allowsome time for questions from the children and theteacher.

Take along some props that can be passed aroundthe classroom, allowing the children to handle andexamine each item. Some good ideas for propsinclude:

Chitted seed potatoesA freshly dug plant, leaves, haulms, flower heads ifpossiblePotato product packaging, e.g. crisp and chippackets or a bag of fresh potatoes (instantlyrecognisable packaging is good)A soil sample

Use pictures to illustrate different elements ofyour talk, for example:

Chitted potato – showing the ‘chit’A lifted potato plant, with its tubers attachedDifferent varieties of potatoMachinery planting potatoesMachinery lifting potatoesPotatoes growing in a fieldPotato products (chips, crisps, mash, baked, roast etc.)Contact Potato Council for stock images available.

Having fun is probably what the children willremember most and hopefully they will leavewith a positive view of potatoes. Visualaids, props and interaction not onlymake a presentation interesting, theyare also more likely to make your visitmore memorable.

7

Preparing your presentation

Make it fun!

• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1_• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1 10/Mar/10 16:36 Page 7

Allowing the children to participate is an importantpart of any school activity. Getting children to askand answer questions is a great way to get themmore involved in your presentation, as well asdeveloping their understanding of the subject matter.

Have some questions planned in your talk ready toask but remind children to put their hand up toanswer, not to shout out!

Aim for a balance between giving information by telling and asking questions Rather than saying: “This is a chitted potato”, try:“This is a potato. Can you see anything growing onit?”

Vary the type of question you askUse a mixture of questions, ranging from simpleclosed questions that only require recall or simplecomprehension and observation questions (askingpupils to describe what they see), to moredemanding questions which require pupils to use theinformation you have already given them and then toreason, e.g. “What would happen if...?”

You can also ask pupils to think about alternatives orgive the advantages and disadvantages of differentcourses of action.

Why? How?To create some thought-provoking questions, justadd ‘why’ or ‘how’ in front of a statement to changeit into a question. “What would happen if...?” is also auseful phrase for the start of a question.

Ask questions which make pupils thinkbut can be answered successfully

Don’t direct questions to individualsbut address the whole group

Give pupils time to think and do notanswer your own question!

Use your body language (eye contact,smiling, nodding) to encourageresponses

Praise or acknowledge correctresponses

If no answer comes, ask the questionin a simpler way

Make questions short and clear using straightforward language

8

Add interest through interaction

Questioning skills

• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1_• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1 10/Mar/10 16:36 Page 8

Can you guess what’s inmy box/bag? Revealthings one at a timehaving described themand asked for guessesfrom the children. This

can also help to structure yourtalk. Have a ‘feelie box’ containingthings for thechildren to touchand describe tothe others, e.g.potatoes, soil,chips etc.

It is good to have a range of ideas andactivities prepared that you can use as partof your visit and presentation. These willhelp you interact with the children andmake your visit both fun and educational.

Potato balanceIntroduce a competitive edge: put the children intotwo teams, e.g. one side of the room versus theother. Ask questions in turn to each side. Volunteersfor each ‘team’ could come out to do a task, forexample, who can balance a potato on their headand stand on one leg? Keeping score on a chart cankeep children’s interest. You could get a child to dothe scoring too.

Open and revealAdding some theatrics to your talk will engage thechildren. Have objects and pictures to show toenliven their interest and have an envelope with animage or key words in it. Also, having envelopesdistributed around the classroom for the children toopen and read out can be a good way to remind youof the things you want to say, e.g.Envelope A: A PotatoEnvelope B: Getting the soil readyEnvelope C: Chitting potatoes, and so on.

9

Ice breakers & warm-up activity

Hide &reveal

• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1_• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1 10/Mar/10 16:36 Page 9

SurveyHave pictures of a number of potato-basedfoodstuffs. Reveal these slowly, one at a time,asking children to put their hands up, if they likethat meal/food: crisps, chips, jacket potato, waffles,bangers and mash, etc.

Count the number of children with hands up andsketch out, or have a child sketch out, a simple bargraph to show results. You could have a shoppingbag with these things in and you could vary thesurvey, e.g. “Hands up if you have ever eaten...”, or “Hands up if you think you know what this is.”

For more movement, you could ask the children tostand up, instead of putting their hands up, or youcould start with all the children standing and getthem to sit down to ‘vote’.

Weighing taskTake a sack of potatoes into school. Get thechildren to put the potatoes out onto a table andstop when they think they have 3.2kg – the weight ofthe heaviest ever single potato. Use scales to seewhich group or individual was closest. You can dothis as a competition in table groups, or with a few‘contestants’ at the front of the group.

Make them growIf children have already set up their ‘Grow Your OwnPotatoes’ project or planted potatoes in theirvegetable garden, start with the question: “What doyou need to grow potatoes?” Reveal pictures of sun,water, soil, as children answer this question. Thenyou can ask: “What other things do you think I needon the farm?” Look out for answers of tractor,planter, storage, and harvester. Briefly explain whateach does and how – but not too technical!

Mr Potato FaceMake a drawing on a flipchart or whiteboard of abig potato, have some

different sets of eyes, earsetc. drawn on card with a bit

of Blue Tack on the back. Askthe children to choose whichfacial feature to put on the potatoto make ‘Mr Potato FACE’! This isan especially popular game foryounger children.

10

Additional classroom activities

• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1_• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1 10/Mar/10 16:36 Page 10

Ask the children to stand up if they think astatement is true or sit down if they think it isfalse. Refer to the potato facts for some true factsabout healthy potatoes, or you could use some ofthe following:

1 Potatoes are low in fat. (True)

2 Exercise is important to good health. (True)

3 We should eat three portions of fruit andvegetables a day. (False – it should be five)

4 Potatoes contain vitamins. (True – they containVitamins C and B6)

An easier ‘True or False’ quiz, and more subjective!

1 Potatoes grow on trees. (False)

2 A jacket potato can be eaten with lots oftoppings. (True)

3 Potatoes give you lots of energy. (True)

4 Farmers like growing potatoes. (True)

Some of the answers are debatable and childrenmay wish to justify why they chose True or False.

Establish potatoes asan important part of ahealthy diet – usesome health facts toback this up. Alsoexplain that there arereally no healthy and

unhealthy foods, only healthy andunhealthy diets. Stress theimportance of the ‘Balance of Good Health, Eat Well Plate’ i.e.carbohydrate should make up one-third of a balanced diet.

More information on the nutrientcontent of potatoes is availablefrom the ‘Potatoes: The Facts’booklet. Copies can be requestedfrom Potato Council marketing byemailing gyop@potato.org.uk.

11

Fruit andvegetables

Milk anddairy foodsMeat, fish, eggs, beans

and other non-dairy sources of protein

1⁄3 = potatoesbread, rice, pasta and

other starchy foods

Food and drinkshigh in fat and/or sugar

For more information visit www.lovepotatoes.co.uk

‘True or False’ health quiz

Healthy or

unhealthy?

• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1_• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1 10/Mar/10 16:36 Page 11

Children love learning new things so addin some interesting potato facts to yourpresentation…

If you laid all the potatoes produced by GreatBritain end to end they would reach to the moonand back three times!

Potatoes were first discovered by the SouthAmericans, who found them in the soil high in theAndes Mountains of Peru, more than 6,000 yearsago

Why is a potato called a spud? A ‘spud’ is actuallya small narrow flat spade used for digging and inthe past was used for digging potatoes, that’s howpotatoes got their nickname ‘spud’

How many potatoes do you eat in a year?Nationwide statistics show that on average eachperson will have tucked into around 96kg – that’sapproximately 500 medium-sized spuds

The world’s biggest potato was grownin Germany in 1997 weighing in at amassive 3.2kg

In 1995 potatoes were taken into spaceon board the shuttle Columbia; this isthe first time food had ever beengrown in space!

An exclusive fashion accessory! Louis XVI ofFrance wore flowers from the potato plant(blossoms) in his buttonhole

How many potatoes are there in a packet ofcrisps? Each packet of crisps containsapproximately one medium-sized potato

12

Fascinating potato facts

• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1_• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1 10/Mar/10 16:36 Page 12

Potatoes are low in fat and are a good source ofenergy. They are also rich in many vitamins andminerals needed for growth and development and are a good source of fibre. Potatoes areknown as starchy food. Starchy foods are thosethat mainly provide carbohydrate and shouldmake up one-third of a balanced diet.

An average 175g serving of new potatoes, boiled intheir skins, provides the following nutrients:

per 175g % daily valueCalories 115.5kcal 6.0%Fat 0.5g 0.7%Vitamin C 26.3mg 44%Vitamin B6 0.6mg 30%Potassium 753mg 22%Iron 2.8g 20%Folate 31.5mcg 16%Fibre 2.6g 14%Vitamin B1 0.2mg 14%Magnesium 31.5mg 11%

Potatoes in our dietIt is important to eat a varied and balanced diet tobe healthy. We all need to eat more fruit andvegetables, and more starchy foods. There are lotsof different ways that potatoes can help addvariety to the diet. Potatoes can be combined withdifferent foods to create healthy, balanced meals,for example:

Leek and potato soup Potato saladWedges with chilli Lancashire hotpotJacket potato with beans Fish pieShepherd’s pie Stuffed spudPotato and rosemary Gnocchi with abread rolls tomato sauce

Carbohydrate is yourmain source of energy –you need this in order togrow and be active.

Protein helps your bodyto grow and repair itself.

B vitamins are needed to help yourbody get energy fromcarbohydrate. They also help yournervous system, heart and skin.

Vitamin C is important to keepyour skin healthy, help your bodyheal any cuts or grazes and fightoff colds.

Iron helps your blood carry oxygenaround your body.

Fibre is important because it helpsyour body get rid of waste it doesnot need.

What’s in a potato?

13

For full details and many more recipe ideas visit www.lovepotatoes.co.uk

Did you

know?

• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1_• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1 10/Mar/10 16:36 Page 13

Once you are happy with the content of your talk orpresentation have a practice run through. This willhelp to make sure that the sequence and balanceof information is correct, as well ensuring that youhave all of the supporting material to hand.

More importantly, this will also allow you to checkthat the length of your presentation fits within thetime slot you have been allocated.

Top tips when talking to children…

Always begin with introductions; explain who youare and why you’ve come along

Make your voice sound lively and pause betweendifferent ideas

Children also respond well to eye contact and bodylanguage

Use straightforward words in short sentences

Use humour and human interest

Appeal to the pupils’ curiosity with your style oflanguage

Stand reasonably close to the pupils and movearound occasionally

Make sure you talk reasonably loudly but alsoslowly and clearly

Above all, remember that the talk/presentation ismeant to be fun – for you too! It is also a veryrewarding experience, so thank you for takingpart and good luck!

Practice makes perfect

14

• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1_• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1 10/Mar/10 16:37 Page 14

Other resources for schoolsIf your local school has enjoyed the ‘Grow Your OwnPotatoes’ project, there are many other resourcesand potato-based activities for schools availablefrom the Potato Council, including a ‘Guide toHolding a Potato Day’, ‘Field to Fork’ posters andmuch more.

Potato Council LtdAHDBStoneleigh ParkWarwickshireCV8 2LZ

Tel: 0247 669 2051Email: gyop@potato.org.uk

www.potatoesforschools.org.ukwww.lovepotatoes.co.ukwww.potatoesforcaterers.co.uk

Sources of further information are also available from:

Food – a fact of lifewww.foodafactoflife.org.ukFarming and Countryside Educationwww.face-online.org.uk/ Year of Food and Farmingwww.yearoffoodandfarming.org.uk/Countryside Foundation for Educationwww.countrysidefoundation.org.ukFarms for Schoolswww.farmsforschools.org.ukOpen Farm Sundaywww.farmsunday.org

© 2010 Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB).

15

• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1_• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1 10/Mar/10 16:37 Page 15

• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1_• SPUDS IN SCHOOL 1 10/Mar/10 16:35 Page 1