This picnic lesson plan provides pupils with ample educational opportunities, from food science to event planning. And of course you get to eat, drink and be merry too…
Picnic lesson plan learning objectives
- Use descriptive language to describe a sumptuous menu
- Learn how to plan the perfect picnic
- Use budgeting skills
- Research what foods to buy and make
- Expand your culinary tastes
Starter activity
Begin by discussing who has been to a picnic, and where they went. Compare their experiences and read snippets from stories such as We’re Going on a Picnic! by Pat Hutchins, The Giant Jam Sandwich by J Vernon Lord or The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch by Ronda and David Armitage.
Invite the class to plan their own picnic in the school grounds or a suitable neighbourhood spot. Encourage them to think about trying something new or different. Perhaps a picnic for vegetarians or vegans, or for visitors from another country, or a picnic linked to a theme.
Look at extracts from books, such as the picnics in The Famous Five stories, to explore descriptive language that will really make the mouth water.
Who could resist this feast: ‘crusty loaves of new bread. Crisp lettuces, dewy and cool, and red radishes were side by side in a big glass dish, great slabs of butter and jugs of creamy milk’? Ask the children to write their own picnic menu using adventurous vocabulary.
Russell Grigg is executive head of research at the Wales Centre for Equity in Education.
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