Pollinators, such as bees and butterflies, play a critical role in the pollination process necessary for producing many fruits and seeds that we consume. The document emphasizes the importance of understanding how flowers become fruits and encourages students to track their consumption of pollinated foods through hands-on activities. It highlights various food items and their origins, illustrating the connection between pollination and the foods we enjoy every day.

1. POLLINATORS HELP BRING FOOD TO THE TABLE
Grade Level: Grade 1
Agricultural Background: Pollination is the first Step in Producing Fruits and Seeds
Did you know that without pollinators, such as honeybees, bumbles bees,
wasps, butterflies and many other insects, that many of your favorite foods
would be missing from your breakfast, lunch and dinner table? Pollination
is vital to agriculture and food production. Crops that produce edible fruits
or seeds require pollination in order to mature.
Fruits and seeds start with flowers and form only after the flower has
been pollinated and subsequently fertilized. When the blossom opens,
pollinators visit the flower to collect nectar and pollen. They use them to
make food for themselves and their young. While collecting the pollen
and nectar, the insects inadvertently transfer pollen from flower to flower. Pollination occurs when a
pollen grain lands on the sticky stigma at the top of the flowers pistil.
Once pollinated, each pollen grain forms a tiny pollen tube that grows down the style and penetrates
the ovary wall. Fertilization occurs when the sperm cells travel through this tube to join with an egg
cell (ovule) in the ovary. Each pollen grain can fertilize just one ovule (egg) in the ovary and form
only one seed. Many pollen grains must land on the stigma in order to fertilize flowers with multiple
ovules and to produce multiple seeds.
The fruit is the ripened ovary. After fertilization, as each ovule develops into a seed, the ovary
matures and enlarges into the fruit. It protect the seeds while the fruit is on the plant and even after
harvest.
Some foods we eat, such as corn, wheat, oats and rice, are wind pollinated. These foods do not
require pollinators in order to form the seeds that we eat.
Many foods that we eat are insect-pollinated. The following fruits, vegetables and seeds grown in
Massachusetts require pollinators in order to make it to your table:
Trees: Apples, pears, peaches, apricots, nectarines, cherries, beach plums, quince, persimmons, paw
paws, English walnuts
Lesson and Agricultural Extensions supported by a grant from the Massachusetts
Society for Promoting Agriculture.

2. Shrubs, Vines and canes: blueberries (high and low bush),
huckleberries, gooseberries, currants, cranberries, grapes, black
raspberries, red raspberries and blackberries.
Perennials: strawberries
Annual fruits and vegetables: beans, cantaloupe, cucumbers,
eggplants, peas, peppers, pumpkins, soybeans, summer squash,
tomatillos, tomatoes, watermelon, Winter squash, zucchini
Seeds: coriander seeds, dill seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower
seeds
Fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds grown in other regions and countries: Some of your other
favorite pollinated fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds require a longer growing season that we have in
Massachusetts and are grown in warmer climates: almond, avocado, banana, breadfruit, cacao, cashew,
clementine, coconut, coffee, date, fig, filbert, grapefruit, lemons, limes, lychee, mango, okra, olive,
orange, papaya, passion fruit, peanut, pineapple, pistachio, safflower, sesame star fruit and tangerine.
Foods we eat that come from fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts
Fresh Fruits and vegetables: apples, apricot, avocado, banana, beach plums, beans, blackberries,
blueberries, cantaloupe, cherries, clementine, coconut, cranberries, cucumbers, currant, dates,
eggplants, figs, gooseberries, grapes, grapefruit, huckleberries, lemons, limes, lychee, mango,
nectarines, orange, papaya, paw paw, peas, peaches, pears, peppers, persimmon, pineapple, plums,
pumpkins, quince, raspberries, soybeans, strawberries, summer squash, tangerine, tomatillos,
tomatoes, watermelon, Winter squash, zucchini
Raw nuts and seeds: almonds, cashew, chestnut, English walnuts, filbert, peanut, pistachio, poppy,
sesame, soybean and sunflower.
Frozen fruits and vegetables: beans, blackberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, cranberries, mango, peas,
peaches, peppers, pineapple, raspberries, soybeans, strawberries and Winter squash
Canned fruits and vegetables: apricots, beans, blackberries, blueberries,
cherries, coconut, cranberries, figs, grapefruit, lychee, mango, orange, peaches,
pears, pienapple, plums, pumpkins, quince, raspberries, tomatoes and Winter
squash
Lesson and Agricultural Extensions supported by a grant from the Massachusetts
Society for Promoting Agriculture.

3. Jams, Jellies, Pickles, Relishes and Sauces: apples,
apricot, beach plums, blackberries, blueberries,
cherries, clementine, cranberries, cucumbers, currant,
dates, eggplants, figs, gooseberries, grapes, grapefruit,
huckleberries, lemons, limes, lychee, mango,
nectarines, orange, peaches, pears, pepper, plums,
quince, raspberries, strawberries, tangerine, tomatillos,
tomatoes, watermelon, Winter squash and zucchini
Butters: almond, apple, cashew, peanut, pear and
pumpkin
Dried fruits and vegetables: apples, apricot, banana,
beach plums, cherries, cranberries, currant, dates, figs, grapes (raison) mango, pineapple, plums
(prunes), quince and tomatoes.
Beverages: chocolate, coffee, coconut milk and juices such as apple, blueberry, cherry, cranberry,
grape, grapefruit, lemon, lime, mango, orange, passion fruit, pineapple, raspberry and tomato
Spices and herbs: allspice, celery seed, coriander seed, dill seed, fennel seed, mustard seed, pepper,
star anise
Oils: almond, avocado, grape seed, olive, peanut, pumpkin, sesame and walnut.
Lesson and Agricultural Extensions supported by a grant from the Massachusetts
Society for Promoting Agriculture.

4. WHAT FOODS DO YOU EAT THAT GREW FROM A FLOWER?
Follow-up Lesson to “Pollination: The Reason for A Flower”
Grade Level: Grade 1
Season: Spring
Lesson/Activity Description
In this lesson, students will learn about foods they eat that
grow from the flower of a plant. Once they have learned
how a flower becomes a fruit (or vegetable) they will make
an abacus to keep track of how many times in a 24 hour
period they eat a product that originated as a fruit.
Guiding Question
What foods do we eat that grew from a flower?
Big Idea
Pollinators help to provide the food that we eat every day.
Learning Objectives
- To understand the process by which flowers become fruits through pollination. Students will have a
better grasp of why pollinators are necessary to help provide the food that we eat.
Materials
• 1 paper plate per student
• 1 elastic band or string per student
• Pictures of fruits and vegetables that originated as flowers (from magazines or printed out)
• Glue
• Scissors
• 20-30 beads per student (pony beads are best, but any will do)
Preparation
Gather materials. Collect food magazines or print pictures from the internet.
Introducing the Lesson
Talk about flowers and the fruits they produce after pollination. Tell the
students they will have to pay close attention to the food that they eat over the
next day.
Lesson and Agricultural Extensions supported by a grant from the
Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture.

5. Activate prior knowledge
Show or pass around fruits and vegetables that grew from flowers. Ask the students if they have eaten
any of these products. Which are their favorites?
Engage Student Interest:
Explain that you are going to learn that many of
the foods that we like best were originally flowers.
Ask them if they like to eat flowers. Talk to them
about pollination, why is it important for flowers to
be properly fed.
Procedure
Total time approx. 30 minutes
1. Introduce the lesson, use the background
information to explain to the students about pollination and its importance to fruit production.
2. Explain to the students that you will be creating an abacus to tally the number of times over the next
day they eat a product that grew from a flower.
3. Give each student a paper plate. Have the students glue magazines pictures to their paper plates.
Alternatively, you can have the student draw pictures of the different fruits and vegetables.
4. Help the students to cut two notches in the plates directly across from each other.
5. Have the students string 25-30 beads on the elastic and tie the ends together so it forms a sort of
bracelet. (If you are concerned about students using elastic bands, a piece of string will work as well.
However, you will need to make it is short enough to be tight around the plate.)
6. Have the students loop the bracelet of beads around the plate and onto the notches. The beads should
be on the back side of the plate.
7. Tell the students that every time over the next 24 hours they eat a fruit or vegetable that grew from a
flower they should move the bead to the front.
8. The next day, have the students count the number of beads they moved to the front and discuss what
they ate
Wrap Up
After hearing the students ideas about other ways to use sunflower seeds, talk about how we use seeds
everyday in many different ways that we do not even realize. That is why seeds are so important, not
only do they grow plants but they have many practical uses for people.
Assessing Student Knowledge
As a class, discuss what would happen if the flowers were not pollinated. How
would affect the food that they ate?
Lesson and Agricultural Extensions supported by a grant from the
Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture.

6. Extensions
Have the students explore the parts of different plants that we eat. E.g.
roots (carrots, beets), stem (celery), flowers (brocolli), leaves (lettuce,
cabbage), etc.
* Some of the Massachusetts Department of Education Standards
in this lesson *
Speaking and Listening 1:
Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 1 topics and texts with
peers and adults in small and larger groups.
Speaking and Listening 5:
Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and
feelings.
Speaking and Listening 6:
Produce complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation.
Nutrition Standard 3.5:
Identify the connection between food served in the home with regional food production
Mathematics 1.OA.1:
Use addition and subtraction within 20 to solve word problems involving situations of adding to, taking
from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions, e.g., by using
objects, drawings, and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem
Books and Resources
The Reason for a Flower: The lesson to be used before this one.
http://aginclassroom.org/School%20Gardens/School_Gardening_Lesson_
Plans/School_Gardening_Lesson_Grade%201%20Pollination.htm
Lesson and Agricultural Extensions supported by a grant from the
Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture.