What did you eat at hometoday? Find out what yourfriend ate today. Did you eatthe same kind of food yesterday andtoday? We all eat different kinds of foodat different times, isn’t it?

1.1 FOOD VARIETY

Activity 1

Ask your friends in the school about theitems they would be eating during a day.See if you can also get this informationfrom friends staying in different statesof India. List all the items in yournotebook as given in Table 1.1, for asmany friends as possible.

Table 1.1 What do we eat?

ehtfoemaNdneirf/tneduts

smetidooFyadaninetae

There seems to be so much varietyin the food that we eat. What are thesefood items made of?

Think about ricecooked at home. We takeraw rice and boil it inwater. Just two materialsor ingredients are needed to prepare adish of boiled rice.

On the other hand, some food itemsare made with many ingredients. Toprepare vegetable curry, we needdifferent kinds of vegetables, salt, spices,oil and so on.

Activity 2

Choose some of the items you listed inTable 1.1 and try to find out whatingredients are used to prepare these,by discussing with your friends andelders at home. List them in Table 1.2.Some examples are given here. Addsome more items to this list.

Table 1.2 Food items and theiringredients

metIdooF stneidergnI

itoR / itapahc attA retaw,

laD/lio,tlas,retaw,sesluP

eehg secips,

Food:Where Does It Come From?1

SCIENCE2

Activity 3

Let us take the food items listed earlierand try to find out where they come from— the ingredients and their sources.Some examples are shown in Table 1.3.Fill in the blanks in Table 1.3 and addmore examples to this list.

What do we find? Do we find some ingredients commonfor different food items? Discuss in class.

So, where do these ingredients come from?

1.2 FOOD MATERIALS AND SOURCESIt may be easy for us to guess the sources of some of theingredients that we listed in Table 1.2. Fruits andvegetables, for instance. Where do they come from? Plants,of course! What are the sources of rice or wheat? You mayhave seen paddy or wheat fields with rows and rows ofplants, which give us these grains.

And then, there are food items like milk, eggs, meat,chicken, fish, prawns, beef, pork and such others, whichcome from animals.

Table 1.3 Ingredients used toprepare food items and

their sources

metIdooF stneidergnI secruoS

ildI eciR tnalP

laddarU

tlaS

retaW

nekcihCyrruc nekcihC laminA

secipS

/liO eehg /stnalP slaminA

retaW

reehK kliM laminA

eciR tnalP

raguS

FOOD: WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? 3

you ever eatenpumpkin flowersdipped in ricepaste and fried?Try it!

Some plantshave two or moreedible (eatable)parts. Seeds ofmustard plantsgive us oil andthe leaves areused as avegetable. Canyou think of thedifferent parts of a banana plant thatare used as food? Think of moreexamples where many parts of a singleplant are used as food.

Activity 4

From all the food items you have listedin Table 1.3, choose those items whoseingredients are obtained from plants.Which part of a plant? Identify theseand list the food items and plant partsas shown in Table 1.4.

What do we conclude from Activity3? Plants are the sources of foodingredients like grains, cereals,vegetables and fruits. Animals provideus with milk, meat products and eggs.Cows, goats and buffaloes are somecommon animals which give us milk.Milk and milk products like butter,cream, cheese and curd are used all overthe world. Can you name some otheranimals which give us milk?

1.3 PLANT PARTS AND ANIMALPRODUCTS AS FOOD

Plants are one source of our food. Whichparts of a plant are these?

We eat many leafy vegetables. We eatfruits of some plants. Sometimes roots,sometimes stems and even flowers. Have

Paheli wants to know if any of ourfood comes from sources otherthan plants and animals.

Table 1.4 Plant parts as food

tnalphtiwmetidooFecruosrojamehtsa

ecruos/stneidergnI sevighcihwtraptnalPtneidergniehtsu

yrruclajnirB.1 lajnirB tiurF

)rehtoyna(ecipssaillihC tiurF

,dratsum,tundnuorgmorfliOtnalprehtoyna,naebyos deeS

.2

.3

BudStem

Roots

Flower

Leaf

SCIENCE4

Activity 5

Take some dry seeds of moong or chana.Put a small quantity of seeds in acontainer filled with water and leave thisaside for a day. Next day, drain the watercompletely and leave the seeds in thevessel. Wrap them with a piece of wetcloth and set aside. The following day,do you observe any changes in the seed?

Do you know where honey comesfrom, or how it is produced? Have youseen a beehive where so many bees keepbuzzing about?Bees collect nectar(sweet juices) fromflowers, convert itinto honey andstore it in theirhive. Flowers andtheir nectar may beavailable only for apart of the year. So,bees store thisnectar for their useall through theyear. When we findsuch a beehive, we collect the food storedby the bees as honey.

1.5 WHAT DO ANIMALS EAT?Do you have cattle or a pet that youtake care of? A dog, cat, buffalo or agoat? You will then surely be aware ofthe food, the animal eats. What aboutother animals? Have you ever observedwhat a squirrel, pigeon, lizard or a smallinsect may be eating as their food?

Activity 6

Several animals are listed in Table 1.5.For some of them, the type of food they

A small white structure may have grownout of the seeds. If so, the seeds havesprouted. If not, wash the seeds in water,drain the water and leave them asidefor another day, covered with a wet cloth.The next day, see if the seeds havesprouted.

After washing these sprouted seeds,you can eat them. They can also beboiled. Add some spices and get a tastysnack to eat.

Do not try to test unknown plantsaround you to see if they are edible!Some plants could be poisonous.

FOOD: WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? 5

eat is also given. Fill in the blanks inthe table.

Activity 7

Have a look again at Table 1.5 and groupthe animals entered here as follows.Place animals which eat only plants or

plant products in Group 1. These arecalled herbivores. There are someanimals which eat other animals.Place these in Group 2. These animalsare called carnivores. Do you findsome animals which eat both plantsand animals? Place them in Group 3.These are called omnivores. Preparea table as in Table 1.6 and enterthese separately in the three columns,as shown.

Paheli wants to know where youwould place human beings,while filling Table 1.6.

We know that there are manyamongst us, who do not get sufficientfood. We need to find ways by whichmore food can be grown in the country.That will not be enough; we will need tofind ways to ensure that this food ismade easily available to each and everyone of us.

Table 1.5 Animals and their Food

ehtfoemaNlamina

ehtdooFstaelamina

olaffuB ,ekaclio,ssarG sniarg,yah

taC ,slaminallamS klim,sdrib

taR

noiL

regiT

redipS

drazilesuoH

woC

sgniebnamuH

ylfrettuB

worC

srehtO

Table 1.6

serovibreH serovinraC serovinmO

woC noiL goD

SCIENCE6

There is a lot of variation in the food eaten in different regions of India.

The main sources of our food are plants and animals.

Animals which eat only plants are called herbivores.

Animals which eat only animals are called carnivores.

Animals which eat both plants as well as other animals are calledomnivores.

1. Do you find that all living beings need the same kind of food?

2. Name five plants and their parts that we eat.

3. Match the items given in Column A with that in Column B

AnmuloC BnmuloC

,druc,kliM reenap , eehg , slaminarehtotae

torrac,rewolfiluac,hcanipS stcudorptnalpdnastnalptae

sregitdnasnoiL selbategevera

serovibreH stcudorplaminallaera

stneidergnI

elbidE

ratceN

sdeesdetuorpS

erovibreH

erovinraC

erovinmO

FOOD: WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? 7

SUGGESTED PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES

1. You must have seen a garden lizard around your home. Next time when-ever you see it, observe carefully and find out what it takes for food. Is thefood different from that of a house lizard?

2. Make a list (with pictures, when possible) of food items generally taken bypeople of different regions of India. Place these on a large outline map ofIndia to display in your classroom.

3. Find out the names of plants that grow in water and which are eatenas food.

4. In Chapter 10, you will find out ways of measuring length of curved lines.In your mathematics classes you will learn to prepare bar graphs. Afteryou learn these, try the following interesting project. Prepare some sproutsof moong as discussed in the chapter. Wash them in water everyday anddrain all the water. Let them grow for a week until the whole of the seedsgrow into young plants. Measure the lengths of the sprouts everyday usinga string. Take care that they do not break. Prepare a bar graph of thenumber of sprouts having lengths in different ranges.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

1. Does everyone around you get enough food to eat? If not, why?

2. What are the ways we can think of to avoid wastage of food?

4. Fill up the blanks with the words given:

herbivore, plant, milk, sugarcane, carnivore

(a) Tiger is a ____________________ because it eats only meat.

(b) Deer eats only plant products and so, is called ______________.

(c) Parrot eats only _________________ products.

(d) The ________________ that we drink, which comes from cows, buffaloes andgoats is an animal product.

(e) We get sugar from ___________________.

UNACCO SCHOOL (Excellence in Education)

STUDY MATERIALS - CLASS VI (SCIENCE)

CHAPTER 1: FOOD: WHERE DOES IT COME FROM?

Basic contents of the lesson:

1) Varieties of food

2) Materials and sources of food

3) Plant parts and animal products as food 4) What do animals eat?

Food: - It is the eatable substance consisting essentially of protein, carbohydrates and fats used

in the body of an organism to sustain (to provide what is needed for) growth, repair and vital

process and to furnish (provide) energy.

There are multiple varieties in the food that we eat. We can prepare different food using different

ingredients.

Ingredients: The food materials or substances that are combined together to make a particular

dish are called ingredients.

Food items and their ingredients:

Food item Ingredients

1. Kheer - Raw rice, sugar, milk, water, dry fruits.

2. Dal - Pulses, water, salt, oil, spices

3. Papad - Pea, pulses, spices, water

4. Sandwich - Bread, cheese, cucumber, tomato, chicken

5. Chicken curry - chicken, oil, water, salt, onion, ginger, garlic, tomato,

spices

Sources: We get food from both plants and animals.

Plants provide us pulses, grain, fruits, vegetables, spices, cereals etc. Animals provide us milk, egg,

meat etc.

Some plants have two or more edible (eatable) parts. We eat leaves of many vegetables. We eat

fruits of some plants. Sometimes roots, sometimes stems and even flowers. Sprouted seeds are

also edible and good.

SPROUTED SEEDS: A small white structure growing out of the seeds /or it is the natural

germinating process of seeds.

NECTAR is a sweet substance produced by plants which are mainly present in flowers and they

are edible. They are collected by bees.

What do animals eat?

The food habit of different group of animals differ from each other.

Herbivores: Animals that eat only plants are called herbivores. Example goat, cow, giraffe etc.

Carnivores: Animals that eat only animals are called carnivores. Example lion, tiger etc.

Omnivores: Animals which eat both plants as well as other animals are called omnivores.

Example dog, pigs, bear.

Text Book Questions:

1) Do you find that all living beings need the same kind of food?

Ans: No, all living beings do not need the same kind of food. Different animals eat different kinds

of food at different time.

2) Name five plants and their parts that we eat.

Ans: i) Apple – fruit ii) Banana – stem, flower, fruit iii) Carrot – root iv) Mustard – leaf, flower,

seed v) Potato – stem, leaf

Additional Questions:

1) Explain the importance of food for living organism.

Ans: Importance of food for living organism are:

i) It provides energy to do various activity.

ii) It helps in growth.

iii) It helps to repair and replace damaged parts of the body.

iv) It protects us from infections and diseases.

2) Differentiate between herbivores, carnivores and omnivores. Give example of each.

Ans: Herbivores: Animals that eat only plants are called herbivores. Example goat, cow, giraffe

etc.

Carnivores: Animals that eat only animals are called carnivores. Example lion, tiger etc.

Omnivores: Animals which eat both plants as well as other animals are called omnivores. Example

dog, pigs, bear.

3) What are the main sources of food that we eat?

Ans: The main sources of our food are plants and animals.

4) Which types of seed give more energy, sprouted seeds or normal seeds?

Ans: Sprouted seeds give more energy.

HOME ASSIGNMENT:

- Match the following. (Please refer to Textbook Page No. 6)

- Fill up the blanks with words given. (Please refer to Textbook Page No. 7)