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- Postcards from the paddies
Postcards from the paddies
Key Learning Area: English, SOSE/HSIE
Level: Middle Primary
Description: Students learn about the production of rice, and use this knowledge together with
information from the book to create a postcard.
Lesson overview
- To make a postcard
- To learn about the production of rice
Lesson duration: One hour
Main learning outcomes
English – Writing
SOSE/HSIE – Environment
Materials required
- Pictures / photos of rice paddies and processes involved in the production of rice
- Handout 5: Growing Rice
- Handout 6: Postcard Master
- Cardboard for postcards
- Textas / Coloured pencils
Procedure
1. Varieties of rice
There are many different varieties of rice grown around the world. Look at some pictures of rice growing. Look at the photo of rice stalks ready to be harvested on Page 9. What conditions does rice need to grow?
2. Read Handout 5
Handout 5: Growing Rice
Rice seed is usually raised in a seedbed. The young seedlings are then transplanted into the mud in rice paddies, which are swamped with water. The water in the paddies is brought in from rivers and waterways along a system of canals. If the paddies are on hillsides they are often terraced. This allows the water to flow down into other rice fields. The growing rice takes its food from the mud. As the rice plants grow, the
farmers allow the water level to drop. The growing rice plants are very green.
Before the rice is ready to harvest the ground is allowed to dry out. The ripe rice is harvested from the stalks and dried out, turning yellow. It is then threshed to separate the grains of rice from the rice straw. Sometimes the rice is threshed by oxen and water buffalo trampling on the rice. The rice then needs to be milled to remove the grain’s hull, which is the part of the rice that is eaten.
3. Postcard production
Look at the postcard from China on Page 21.
Explain to the students that they are on holiday in a country that produces rice. They are to make a postcard from this country which features a stage in the process of rice production. On the other side of the postcard they are to write about their imagined experiences in their country of choice, using information from The Really Big Food Project.
4. Postcard handout
This master can be used to produce the postcard. It can be pasted onto a piece of white card if a firmer postcard is desired.
Handout 6: Postcard Master
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
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5. Display – Postcards from the Paddies
Make a display of completed postcards to hang around the classroom.
Extension Activity
Make a collection of postcards from different countries of Asia. Group these according to
different headings.
- What are the similarities?
- What are the differences?
Suggested follow-up activities
Look through travel brochures and books for pictures to do with rice production. Cut the
pictures out or make copies and sort these according to the stages of rice production.
- Raising seeds
- Planting seedlings
- Irrigating rice paddies
- Maturing rice plants
- Harvesting rice
- Threshing rice
- Milling rice
