montessori adventures: root vegetable recognition & a note about food in the classroom.

i present my original sensorial lesson - root vegetable recognition. it is basically a stereognostic matching work that introduces seasonal vegetables. the original post and lesson plan can be found here. i am a little late getting this in, but ideally i would present this during the heart of winter. this is part of my urban homesteading unit project and i love it!

i am still trying to decide how i feel about food in the classroom in terms of activities and work. i am trying to teach my children about healthy, natural foods and i feel strongly that this activity needs the actual food to show that. using rice as a sifting activity or beans for pouring - that i tend to stray away from because it is easy to substitute a non-food item for those activities. but when teaching about the actual plant i think it is important. 

what are your thoughts about food in the montessori classroom? do you or don't you?