THE CHILLI CHALLENGE

 

Shared by Susan Rees:

SCHOOL YEAR: YEAR 3                                                                                

SUBJECT: English / Natural Science/ arts and crafts

TOPIC: Plants, including parts of plants, needs of plants and their life cycle.

Estimated TIME/SESSIONS:

3 Sessions for planting and studying parts of a chilli pepper plant, different types of chillies, how to grow a healthy plant etc.

1 session in Art to paint the plant pots

3 English sessions to create advertising/ leaflet or recipe book

LESSON OBJECTIVE:

·         Learn that food, in this case spices, come from plants (Mathematical competence and competence in science, technology and engineering)

·         Gather information about the needs and wants of user groups (entrepreneurship competence)

·         Use ICT to develop and communicate ideas (advertising) (Digital competence)

 

CONTENTS/SKILLS:

Science

·         Parts of a plant

·         Attracting and recognizing pollinators

English

·         transcription (spelling and handwriting)

composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech and writing).

HOLD A CHILLI CHALLENGE

DESCRIPTION:

PROJECT

A chilli challenge contest is a great way to encourage children to learn about plants while making money for your school garden or for charity. It is a cross curricular activity which can be used as is, or parts of it.

The chilli challenge outline

This activity is a way to encourage pupils to sow and grow chilli plants to sell to parents, teachers and school staff.

When the plants have grown, 

·         Hold an in-house competition to see who can produce the most chillies. 

·         Judge which plant is best in show and charge a small fee for each plant that enters.

·         Challenge a brave teacher or parent to eat a whole chilli. 

·         Ask for chilli recipes and judge the produce i.e. chilli chutney, chilli salsa, etc. 

·         Make a chilli recipe booklet from the best recipes and sell it to raise money for your school garden or for a charity.

WHAT TO DO

1.   Sow and grow the chillies in pots and take orders from teachers and staff. Follow the chilli crop instruction sheet below to do this. Choose different chilli varieties such as jalapeno, Padron, Cuerno de Toro, Cayenne, sweet pepper or prairie fire and much more. Choose them for colour, heat or size

2.   You can paint terracotta pots with your pupils to plant the healthy plants in to sell them, using the profit to buy more resources for a school garden.

Once the chilli plants are growing healthily and there is a strong root system you can sell the plants to the teachers, school staff and parents. You can write care cards (instructions) with your pupils to go with the plants. Do this activity at the end of the term before the summer holidays and set a date for the chilli challenge show a few months away at the beginning of September. Make sure the teachers, staff and parents bring their chilli plants in for the “Chilli Challenge Show”. 

2.   Create posters advertising the show with your pupils to remind people of the challenge day and the different categories. You could include categories such as the oddest shaped chilli, the biggest chilli or the bushiest plant chillies etc. Get someone to judge the different categories making sure they are impartial.

3.   On show day count the chillies on each plant. The person with the most chillies wins (make sure there is no cheating!). Run the different activities; the chilli eating challenge, the chilli recipe challenge, the chutney challenge, and other category competitions.

4.   You can also use chillies you’ve bought or chillies from your school plants to make chilli flavoured treats. Taste the chilli inspired produce and decide the winner, you can also sell any chilli at this time.

5.   Collect the chilli recipes together and produce the booklet to sell.

RECIPE/s (needed for the activity):

 

Here is an example os one of the chilli recipes we have used and works well

Tomato and Chilli Chutney

This recipe is only a bit spicy and is ok to use for people who don’t like hot, spicy food. It goes well with

with ham and cheese and biscuits for a snack or picnic in the playground with your pupils.

Ingredients

·         500g red onions, finely sliced

·         1kg fresh tomatoes, chopped

·         4 garlic cloves, finely sliced

·         8 - 12 fresh red chillies, roughly chopped

·         a thumb-size piece of ginger, peeled and chopped

·         250g brown sugar

·         150ml red wine vinegar

·         5 cardamom seeds

·         1/2 tablespoon paprika

Method

STEP 1

Place all your ingredients into a large, heavy-based pan and bring to a gentle simmer, stirring occasionally.

STEP 2

Simmer for 1 hour.

STEP 3

Using a handheld blender, blend all the ingredients, but not so much that it becomes a puree.

STEP 4

After simmering, bring to a gentle boil so that the mixture turns dark, jammy, and shiny.

STEP 5

Place into sterilized jars and place in the fridge for the night. This chutney will keep for 6 weeks.

VOCABULARY:

Cooking:

Simmer, chop, cut, slice, stir, blend, boil, jammy, shiny

Edible parts of a plant:

Seed pod, growing tip, closed flower, open flower, leaf vegetable, stem, shoot, pinch out, bulb, swollen store base.

MATERIALS:

CHILLI INFORMATION SHEET

How to grow chillies. (Maybe use sweet chillies with younger children) 

HOW TO SOW

1.   Sow the seeds on the surface of moist compost in a seed tray or large pot.

2.   Sprinkle a thin layer of compost over the seeds and write a label with the variety and date.

3.   Put the tray or pot next to a sunny window until the seeds germinate (usually after 7 days or longer), making sure you keep the soil moist.

4.   You can cover the tray or pot with a plastic bottle or clear plastic bag to encourage the seeds to germinate faster.

SEED GROWTH

1.   Once the seedlings have grown their first leaves and are strong enough to handle, you can replant them individually into smallish ( about 7 or 8cm) pots. Put the pots back in a sunny place.

·         You should water the plants regularly and feed them every two weeks once the first flowers have appeared. 

·         Replant them into bigger pots when the plants get too big, and when you think there is no danger of frost you can put them outside, in a greenhouse or in a polytunnel.

·         When the chilli plants start to get bigger again, you should put a growing stake in the pot with them, and pinch the higher leaves out to keep them compact.

·         Your chilli flowers should be pollinated by visiting insects. 

HARVESTING THE CROP

Usually about 10 to 17 weeks after sowing. Some varieties might take less or longer.

·         From the middle to end of August, chillies are generally ready to harvest, and you should remove them with a clean scissors or secateur.  

·         Check the varieties you have sown to get an idea of the size, shape and colour of the ripe fruit.

·         If you pick the chillies regularly it helps to encourage plants to produce more.

 

  USE THE CHILLIES

You can use the fruit as they are, or you can dry them. You can stuff some of the bigger varieties with different fillings. Use some of the recipes you created for the chilli challenge recipe booklet.

FOR THE CHILLI CHALLENGE

You need a variety of different chilli seeds or seedlings. Composted soil to grow the plants, seed trays (or paper egg cartons) terracotta pots, art resources for painting the pots and/or for creating the advertising poster and recipe booklet. (These can also be done digitally using Canva for education Book Creator or similar.)

FOR THE RECIPE:

   See the ingredients above

   Also:

·         Heavy based saucepan

·         Wooden spoon

·         Mixing bowl

·         Chopping board

·         Knife

·         Blender

·         Sterilised glass jars

NOTES/ PIECES OF ADVICE:

This works well with pupils in years 3 and 4 primary education as a project lasting more than just a couple of lessons. Be careful with the choice of chilli peppers as the seeds can irritate their skin and eyes if you use really hot species.

CREDITS:  

RHS School Gardening

Canva for education

Book Creator

Chilli recipes for kids