Lesson Plan #:AELP-NUT001
Submitted by: Katie Catlin
Email: Cokeanuthd@aol.com
School/University/Affiliation: Troy State University Date: October 22, 1998

Grade Level(s): 1, 2

Subject(s):

• Health/Nutrition

Description: As a way to set the stage, the teacher will talk to the students about food. He or she will then ask the students to raise their hands and name their favorite foods. Then he or she will ask them to raise their hands if they like to eat vegetables.

Goals: Besides being a concept that students in second grade must learn according to the Alabama Course of Study, students should learn about balanced meals to promote and provide a healthier generation and society.

Objective(s): When today’s lesson is complete the student will:

A.  Name at least two reasons why eating vegetables is important.
B.  Name the five food groups.
C.  Select a balanced meal.
D.  Construct a balanced meal.

Materials:

• overhead projector
• poster board
• markers
• magazine pictures
• colored
• stickers
• borderette
• wrapping paper
• macaroni
• sentence strips
• wrapping
• paper tube
• tape
• yarn
• tacks
• baskets
• computer generated pictures of food
• audio cassette:  Fran Avni Sings Artichokes and Brussel Sprouts
• cassette player
• paper plates
• staples

Procedure:

Presentation I After the teacher and students discuss their favorite foods and take a poll of who does and does not like to eat vegetables, then the class will listen to the song, Artichokes and Brussel Sprouts from Fran Avni Sings Artichokes and Brussel Sprouts.

Activity A

1. When the song is over the teacher will ask the students the following questions:

     *What was in the bags and what did her grandmother want her to eat?
     *What would she rather eat?
     *Why should she eat the artichokes and brussel sprouts and not the hotdogs, ice cream, and chocolate cake?

2. The teacher will inform the students that vegetables are important for growth and development, to make your body healthy, and to help protect against diseases.

3. Students will discuss what other foods are important for a healthy body.

Presentation II

The teacher will then introduce the definition of a balanced meal.  It will be prepared on a sheet of poster board and the students will read it aloud with the teacher, and he or she will help them with the complicated words.

He or she will define balanced meal as: a meal that has enough, but not too much, food from each of the five food groups.  It should include food that gives you the daily amount of vitamins, minerals, fats, proteins, and carbohydrates.

Next, the teacher will present the food pyramid on a transparency.

Activity B

1. The teacher and students will discuss the six components of the food pyramid, and the proportions by explaining the significance of the pyramid formation.

2. They will discuss what daily amounts are, what nutrients each food group provides, and why everyone should eat something from each food group in every meal.

Activity C

The next activity will be to play The Balance Game. The students, as a class, will be given six meals made of paper food, and the students will have to decide if the meal is balanced or not. If it is, then they will be instructed to clap. If it is not, then, they will be instructed to rub their own head. The game is played with a makeshift balance. If the meal is balanced, the balance will not move, but if the meal is not balanced, the balance will be significantly uneven. This is designed to visually show the students what a balanced meal is.

As a second part to The Balance Game, the students and teacher will use the interactive bulletin board titled, Meals on Wheels, to decide if the balanced meals in The Balance Game had the proper daily amounts of nutrients in them.  The names of the food groups on the wheel are written in various colors.  The teacher will then take the corresponding stickers and have the students tell him or her to which category each food item on the meal plate belongs.  He or she will then place a corresponding color sticker on the wheel in the appropriate food group.  Then, the students will add up the amount of stickers in each category and see if they had the daily amounts that they needed to have healthy meals that day.

Concluding the Lesson

The teacher will conclude the lesson by telling students to write down what they eat for dinner that night, and instruct them to come back and report to the class what they ate and if the meal was balanced.

Adaptation of Instruction to Diverse Learning Styles, Backgrounds, and Abilities

For the visual learner(s) The teacher will have transparencies with the words to the Artichokes and Brussel Sprouts song displayed on the overhead projector.  He or she will also have pictures of food and the food guide pyramid for the students to see.

For the auditory learner(s)

The teacher will play the audio recording of the song, Artichokes and Brussel Sprouts.

For the kinesthetic learner(s)

The teacher will have the students respond by clapping and rubbing their heads, instead of verbally giving answers to questions.  Also, the teacher will have the students physically place the foods on the bulletin board.

For a student or students from another culture

The teacher will list various ethnic foods and foods from the student’s culture and help them place the food in the correct food group.

For the gifted learner(s)

The teacher will have the child(ren) choose at least one thing about the lesson that he or she likes and write a mock article for the school or class newsletter.  He or she also could find an internet site on the World Wide Web for the class to talk about and view.

Assessment: Student Assessment

Teacher self-evaluation The teacher will observe the students at lunch time to see if they are selecting the correct foods from the school lunch line or bringing the proper food from home.