Community-Based Bachelor of Education Program
Lesson Plan
Subject: Social Studies
Unit: Diversity
Topic: First Nation foods
Grade: Kindergarten
Time allotted: 45 - 60 minutes
Overview and Purpose:
Students will learn to appreciate diversity in our classroom by learning that we are
all unique and diverse. Through our diversity we have differences but we also have
similarities. In this class students will be learning a little about the First Nation
traditional foods. The class will explore four different foods at four different centers
and in their group will describe the foods they have tried.
Prior Knowledge:
Students will have an understanding that we are learning about different cultures
that are in Canada and in our classroom. We will be taking one week to learn about
diversity in our classroom learning about the different cultures in our classroom.
We will learn about language, clothing, food, art, leaders and dance in different
cultures.
Students will have knowledge on how to use their five senses to describe what they
see, smell, hear, etc. Students have used their senses during our discovery center
where they used their senses to guess what was in the boxes and bottles.
Outcome:
INK.2 - Describe the diversity of groups represented in the classroom.
Indicators:
b. Describe various cultural traditions, festivals, and celebrations recognized by
children’s families and communities, and discuss the importance of these cultural
traditions, festivals, and celebrations.
I can identify First Nation traditional foods and by using my five senses describe
them.
Lesson Plan Overview:
Introduction:
In the classroom there will be four different tables filled with different foods.
At table one there will be berries such as saskatoons, blueberries,
chokecherries, etc. The second table there will be dried moose meat and
dried deer meat. On the third table there will be pemmican and at the fourth
table there will be bannock.
Community-Based Bachelor of Education Program
Process:
1. Good morning Kindergarten has anyone noticed something different around
our classroom. Yes, there are different types of food all around our
classroom. Today we are going to try these foods. Each of these foods is
what the First Nation people use to eat and some people still eat these types
of foods. You might have even tried these foods before.
(2 minutes)
2. We are going to read the book “Little Chief and Mighty Gopher the Pemmican
Frenzy” by Victor Lethbridge. This book is about a boy who becomes friends
with a gopher who tries to eat all of the tribe’s pemmican.
(5 minutes)
3. After the book is finished explain to the class that we are going to try
pemmican which is a traditional First Nations food as well as some other
foods that First Nation people eat.
4. Kindergarten we have some special parent volunteers in our classroom today
and they are going to help us at each of our food groups.
5. I am going to call your name and you are going to go find your leader. In
group 1 (call out a group and list all the students names. When all those
students are with their leader call out the next name until all of the leaders
have their groups.)(Parents will know there role before class begins. They
are there to assist students with what they want to describe.)
(5 minutes)
6. Grab everyone attention. Your group leader knows what table you will start
at if you are group one you start at table one, etc. You will have 10 minutes at
each station where you will get to try some of the food and then you have to
write in your book a small description.
7. In your booklet you can draw a picture of what it looks like and write a
couple of words to describe it. Your group leader is there to help you write
or spell and I will be coming around to help students as well.
(40 minutes)
8. You get to go to each table so it does not matter where you start. Have fun
and make sure you try a little bit of each different food. Enjoy and you can go
to your first table.
9. As students are trying there foods and describing them monitor the
discussions they are having about the foods. Do they recognize tastes or
smells? Are they using good descriptive words or pictures?
Community-Based Bachelor of Education Program
10. When all groups have tried each of the foods they can have a few minutes to
finish up their drawings.
11. When the class has finished have them gather around the circle mat and we
can have a discussion about the different foods. Have each student describe
one of the food items they tried and what they thought of it. Have them show
their picture and describe the food.
(10 minutes)
Closure:
While the class is sitting in a circle have the class identify each food item as I
hold them up. The class will say what the food item is such as berries,
pemmican dried meat or bannock.
(5 minutes)
Differentiations:

Students could write a sentence to describe foods.

Students can get assistance describing foods.

Students can draw just a picture.
Assessment strategies:

Students will describe foods in their booklets and will share what the food
items are called. Checklist that students have made a connection to First
Nation food.
Materials required:

Four different centers/tables

Pemmican, bannock, dried meat, berries – enough for the whole class and
parents

Booklets for students to write in.

The book “Little Chief and Mighty Gopher the Pemmican Frenzy” by Victor
Lethbridge.

Parent volunteers
Community-Based Bachelor of Education Program
Extension Activity:
As a class we will make our own bannock bread recipe.
Visit a grocery store to explore if we can buy traditional First Nation foods such as
dried meat, moose meat or bannock.
Booklets will have for sheets just like this: