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Day 3: Farm to Table — Build in Canva

Lesson Overview
Time 50 minutes
Objectives Translate yesterday's paper sketch into a finished Canva infographic; use design tools (text, icons, color) to create a clear visual; export the final infographic as PNG
TEKS d(1)(C)
Deliverable Completed Farm to Table infographic exported as PNG and submitted to Google Classroom
Materials Chromebooks, Canva for Education accounts, paper sketches from Day 2, projector

Warm-Up (5 min)

WARM-UP: Look at your paper sketch from yesterday. What is ONE thing you want to make better when you build it in Canva today?

Take 2-3 student responses. The point: students should know their plan before they touch Canva so the design time is focused.

Activity 1: Canva Account + Template Setup (10 min)

Walk students through opening Canva on the projector:

  1. Navigate to canva.com/education
  2. Sign in with school Google account (Canva for Education is free for students)
  3. From the home page, click "Create a design" → search "Infographic"
  4. Choose a blank infographic template OR a template that matches the layout from your paper sketch

Common Issue

Some students will pick an over-designed template with 12 sections when they only have 4 steps. Push them toward a SIMPLE template with 4-6 sections that matches their sketch. The template should serve their plan, not the other way around.

Verify all students have a blank or simple infographic open before continuing.

Activity 2: Build the Infographic (30 min)

Source: H&L Workbook Ch 2, p. 25, "Step 2: Create Your Infographic"

Students follow their paper sketch from Day 2 to build the infographic in Canva. Each infographic must include:

  • Title at the top: "From Sunny Fields to Your Table, [Crop Name]"
  • Sunny Fields Farm logo spot (use Canva's "Elements" → Shapes to create a simple text logo, or use a sun icon)
  • At least 4 numbered steps with:
    • A short heading (e.g., "1. Planting")
    • A 1-sentence description
    • An icon or image (search Canva's free icon library)
  • One fun fact box (e.g., "Strawberries are not actually berries, they're aggregate fruit!")
  • Color scheme that matches the crop (red/green for strawberries, purple/green for grapes, etc.)

Walk around and check students are following their sketch, not getting lost in Canva's font menus.

Facilitation Tip

The biggest time-waster in Canva is changing fonts and colors over and over. Set a 5-minute soft deadline: by the 15-minute mark, all 4 step boxes should be filled in with text, even if the design isn't polished. Polish comes after the content is in place.

After 25 minutes of building, give students a 5-minute "polish + export" warning. Students export the final design:

  • Click Share → Download → PNG in Canva
  • Save the PNG to their Google Drive
  • Submit the PNG to Google Classroom (or print to share with the class)

DOK 2: Look at your final infographic. If a 6-year-old saw it, would they understand how the strawberry got from the farm to their table? What detail makes it clear (or unclear)?

Activity 3: Quick Show + Tell (3 min)

In the last 3 minutes, ask 2-3 volunteers to display their infographic on the projector and share one design choice they made. This gives students a sense of how others approached the same task, different crops, different layouts, different fun facts.

Exit Ticket (2 min)

EXIT TICKET (Venn Diagram Comparison) · Printable PDF:

My Farm to Table infographic is designed for adult grocery shoppers. A classmate's infographic is designed for the same crop. Trade infographics in the last 3 minutes of class with a peer who picked the SAME crop you did.

My crop: _____

Unique to MY infographic (2 design choices that are different from my classmate's):

Unique to CLASSMATE's infographic (2 design choices my classmate made that I did NOT):

SHARED by both (2 things we BOTH did, like a similar step or fun fact):

Bottom line: Which infographic is more effective for ADULT SHOPPERS, mine or my classmate's? Use ONE specific design choice to back the pick. (d(1)(C))

Submit your PNG to Google Classroom with this ticket.

Differentiation

  • Support: Provide a pre-built Canva template (shared via Canva for Education classroom feature) with all 4 step boxes already laid out. Students fill in the text and icons rather than designing from scratch.
  • Extension: Add a fifth step that shows what happens to the food after the customer takes it home (e.g., washed, eaten, composted). This connects to the sustainability theme in Week 3.
  • ELL: Bilingual infographic, design with both English and Spanish labels for each step. Canva supports both languages in the same design.