Duration: 8 weeks
Outdoor areas utilised: Section of vegetable garden, cob oven, green house, pots outside classroom

Overview

• Listing the vegetables used in a pizza.
• Listing all ingredients and how they may be accessed. Costing a pizza that is bought, one that is ready made, one that is home made and one that has some home-grown ingredients.
• Finding the origin of these vegetables and identifying the climatic zone/s they come from.
• Describing the best growing conditions for the vegetables.
• Preparing a garden bed. Planting the vegetables appropriately. Caring for the plants during growth.
• Harvesting the vegetables.
• Preparing a pizza.
• Using a cob/ pizza oven.
• Celebration of Italian culture and its contribution to our Australian way of life.

Scope of Curriculum Links

1. Elementals

• Communicating with people in other climatic regions regarding the effects on their food production, way of life and the weather disasters they prepare for. The Mediterranean Climate, and the plants that grow well in those conditions.

Permaculture

• Locating the best position and time to grow a pizza garden. (Well drained, sunny spot, low humidity).
• Gaining a yield from the garden.
• Harvesting and preparing a product (the pizza).
• When to harvest

Trees

• Identify the olive tree.

Living soil

• Moving soil.
• Preparing soil for planting.
• Measuring and altering the soil pH.

Plants

• Species selection.
• Planting five different species.
• Monitoring plant health.

2. Basic skills and concepts appropriate to the grade level

Mathematics

• Properties of the circle. Graphing pizza topping preferences (bar and pie graphs).
• Budgeting.
• Costing commercial pizza and comparing with the home made variety.
• Graphing comparisons.

Written Expression

• Recipes, advertising the pizza day/ product, report on the olive tree.

Geography

• Italy. Major Italian cities.
• Climate and landform of Italy.
• Writing to schools in Italy (email).

Cultural Studies

• Italian lifestyle, food, clothes, special days,
• invitation to Italian visitor to the class.
• Italian immigration to Australia and the cultural benefits.

Art

• Famous artists, sculptors and painters of Italy.

• The Italian sense of style in fashion, car design, furniture etc.

3. Values and behaviours

• Appreciation of the diversity of cultures in Australia. Valuing diversity.
  Sense of personal achievement when producing food from the garden to the table.
  Good healthy eating. Social importance of food and eating. Valuing cultural heritage.

4. Area for special treatment

Making the mathematics lessons more related to the real world. Incorporating a lot of calculations for the garden set up, the planting, the costing and the amount of product to show the relevance of learning mathematical operations and getting them correct.

5. Processes to be emphasised

Planning, observing, predicting, sharing.

Vocabulary

Pizza, Italy, Italian, Mediterranean, circular, segment, sector, diameter, radius, dough, toppings, choice, sauce, capsicum, tomato, onion, garlic, cheese, eggplant, mushrooms, Mozzarella, soft, crunchy, crisp, thick, thin, (and the superlatives; thicker, thickest) oven, cob, bake, roast, knead, share, fraction, half, quarter.

Assessment Tools to be Used

1. Elementals

• Garden establishment.
• Garden journal completion.
• Design of garden, lists of materials required, costings of the garden, watering schemes, pH levels and how it could be/ was improved, species lists, harvesting the produce.
  Worksheets.
• Preparing the pizzas and watching/ timing the use of the pizza oven under supervision.

2. Basic skills

• Production of accurate graphs.
  Report on olive trees.
  Identifying five Italian cities on the map and linking them with famous landmarks, people, inventions.
  Pizza Day celebration, cooking the pizzas, costume, art works, delivery of the material to one or more other groups.
  Italian music, song and dance.
  Learning some Italian words and phrases.

3. Values and behaviours

• Pizza Day celebration, the flavour and quality of the vegetables and the pizzas produced.
• Garden work journals.
• Relationship with students of Italian descent.

4. Area for special treatment

• Raised interest level in mathematics.
• Increased accuracy in calculations.
• Transfer of the skills and attitude to other areas of mathematics and the other subject areas.

List of Evidence to Gather

Photographs, emails to schools in Italy, a recipe, graphs, garden work journal, report on olive trees, posters, Italian cities’ quiz.

Reporting and Evaluation

• Photographs and video made to be shown to parents or put into foyer display for parents to see.
• Students to self-assess and report on the success of their garden, the pizza they prepared and the success of the celebration day.
• Teacher to make anecdotal remarks regarding the behaviours and values of targeted students during this unit.
  (Those who have shown some sort of cultural bias against others from a Mediterranean ethnic background, those who have not accepted the relevance of mathematics in their daily life etc.)

Evaluation (after the event may include the following considerations)

• Garden site well suited.
• Vegetables took longer to ripen than expected.
• Good support from members of the Italian community, need larger plot next time.
• Library resources need to include more references on Italian art.