These two weeks are designated to focus on healthy eating. Books we will read include;
Eat Healthy, Feel Great
(Sears, 2002),
The Monster Health Book
(Miller, 2008)
Spriggles Health and Nutrition
(Gottlieb, 2011) and
The Vegtables We Eat
(Gibbons, 2008). We will start out with William Sears book,
Eat Healthy, Feel Great
. This is the time I will introduce the unit journal. The students will begin charting the foods they eat, as well as what category the foods fall under. They learned about green light, yellow and red light foods so they will have to categorize their meals inside their journals.
Figure 1.2
We will explore the food groups that make up the food pyramid. The students will learn how to use the food pyramid to help them make food choices for healthy eating as well as identifying fruits and vegetables they eat throughout the day.
Lesson 1 on exploring the food pyramid: The students will see a poster of MYPYRAMID for Kids and discuss what they notice. We will point out the foods on the poster and how they are arranged in groups. We will also discuss each food group in turn. The students will be able to understand that everyone needs food to live and grow. I will lead the discussion by saying "I am noticing the foods are arranges in groups. Why do you think that is?" We will then discuss each food group in turn. Next I will ask the students, "Why do you think there are stairs?" After our discussion, the students will take home a poster to fill in or cut out pictures to place on each group. These posters will then be displayed in the room to remind students of the food groups.
Lesson 2 on exploring the food pyramid: The students will practice sorting foods into the groups and learn where to find foods from each food group in the lunch line. First, a review of grains, vegetables, fruits, milk, meat and beans will be reviewed by having the students sort through pictures and pasting them on the correct part of the pyramid. Before the lesson, I will have cut out some examples of food for each part and attached a piece of tape onto the back for easy attachment. Next, we will discuss the cafeteria and their school lunches. I will point out that their food tray should have a grain, vegetable, fruit, milk and meat on it. After discussion, the students will then independently draw a picture of their school lunch trays after lunchtime and display them to the class. I will ask questions such as, "What could make your lunch tray healthier?" "Do you think your lunch tray was well balanced?"
These 2 weeks will be fun, and interactive. The students will record the foods they eat and be able to notice if they are getting enough green light foods in their diet. I will also point out the snacks that they bring into school are also a contributor to their diet. Even though it is not on the plate, you are still eating it so it must get recorded into your journal. Hopefully apples, nuts, and/or string cheese will replace the bags of chips and the cookies that they are used to bringing in.
Suggested activities to do during this time:
Moving More Game:
Children need to eat enough food to support growth and show be physically active every day. This game helps kids think about the many ways to be physically active while playing a movement game. Gather the students and ask them to brainstorm a list of active thinks they like to do. Write each activity onto an index card. Now, have the students go to the front of the room, draw a card from the deck of activities and read what is on it. Have students act out their movement for 15–30 seconds, then draw another card. You can add music to speed up the tempo (or slow it down).
Pyramid Go Fish:
This activity will give students additional practice in sorting foods into groups. Create pictures of foods and paste them onto cards. Put students into groups of 4 and distribute 30 cards to each group. Now play pyramid Go Fish! The dealer deals out 4 cards per student and places the rest in the middle. Student A will ask Student B if he has a fruit. If Student B says yes, Student B hands her card to Student A. Student A will then place the pair on the table. If Student B did not have a fruit, then Student A will take a card from the pile. The students play until all the pairs are found. The students with the most pairs wins!
Lesson 3 will focus on varying fruits and vegetables. In this lesson, I will challenge the students to name as many fruits and vegetables as they can in 1 minute. I will record on the board by food group. Once the minute is up, I will point out that fruits and vegetables are foods children need to grow and be healthy. We will look at the chart on the board. Ask the students, "Are there any fruits or vegetables that your have never tried?" Add more to the list to introduce new fruits and vegetables. Next, I will have the students go into their journals to add up the fruits and vegetables they have eaten the past few days. I will record their responses onto the board and ask the students to now help me create a bar graph. The students have worked a little with bar graphs, so mostly I will guide this lesson. I will draw a box and label the x and y axis. I will now guide the students to help me complete the graph. Once the graph is complete, we will discuss what we notice in regards to the results. I will then reiterate the importance of fruits and vegetables and how they must be eaten every day for a healthy diet and better brain! *Extension of this lesson– we will continue to graph the amount of fruits and vegetables eaten every day, however we will only graph the results on Fridays. The students will total up the amount of fruits and vegetables eaten that week and we will create a class graph to compare to the week prior, and the students will also create their own graphs to chart individual progress made.