District School Board of Collier County
Department of Nutrition Services
Eating for Health
LESSON PLAN 2
Date(s): ______
Length of Time: 2-3 class periods
Grade Level: 3 – 5
Topic/Theme: Nutrition in Food
Goal: Students will learn to consume healthy food and use the School Nutrition Program as a resource.
Education Standards:
Sunshine State Standards
Health Literacy STANDARD 1:
The student comprehends concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention.
HE.A.1.2.10 – The student knows the nutritional values of different foods.
Goal Three Standards: 1, 3, 4, 8
Lesson Objectives:
1. Students understand why certain foods are healthy and should be eaten daily.
2. Students identify healthy foods.
3. Students apply math skills and organize data.
Lesson Activities:
Introduction –
Students take Survey 1.
Ask students to name their favorite snacks. Write them on a board.
Circle the snack foods that are healthy (low in sugar and/or fat) with fiber and nutrients.
Ask students why they think that you circled those foods.
Model –
Explain to students that a diet high in fat and sugar and low in vitamins A, C, and fiber puts their bodies at risk for certain types of cancer and heart disease as they grow older. Ask students if they know anyone who has had cancer or a heart attack.
Tell students that a great way to reduce the fat and sugar in their diets plus consume more vitamins A,C, and fiber we all need each day, is to eat more fruits and vegetables for snacks. This diet pattern, consumed over time, will help prevent cancer and heart disease as we grow older.
The fiber in plant food like fruits and vegetables aids in digestion and helps prevent certain kinds of cancer, like colon cancer. Tell students that they should eat 20 – 30 grams of fiber a day to be healthy.
Fiber is also found in whole grain breads and cereals so they don’t have to get all 20 – 30 grams of fiber from fruits and vegetables. Eating at least five servings of fruit and vegetables every day, however, is one easy step toward good health. To help students remember this, have them give their neighbor the “High 5.”
Distribute “What are the Most Nutritious Fruits and Vegetables?” handout. Have students identify which fruits and vegetables are the highest in fiber. How many bananas would they have to eat to get 25 grams? How many sweet potatoes?
Practice –
Activity 1 – Have each student group plan a daily food intake with 25 grams of fiber. Provide students with a fiber chart and the “What are the Most Nutritious Fruit and Vegetables” handout. Students are to make a table listing the food that they could consume in a day to achieve 20 – 30 grams of fiber. Think about a real day with breakfast, lunch and supper/dinner foods.
Activity 2 – Conduct a tasting lab with a variety of fruits and vegetables. Use the attached tasting lab procedures and ideas.
Assessment –
Students take Survey 2 to determine increased understanding and application of nutrition concepts.
Teacher Reflections (complete after the lesson):
Resources:*
Five a Day for Better Health, 5th – 6th Grade Curriculum – A complete curriculum for teaching healthy food choices. It includes discussion guides, activities, reproducible masters, and an 11-minute video, Anatomy of a Hero.
Every Day, Lots of Ways: An Interdisciplinary Nutrition Curriculum K-6. It includes making healthy food choices, societal influences, and feelings associated with food choice (Kit).
Five a Day for Better Health: Give Yourself the High Five – Increases students’ awareness of the need to eat more fruits and vegetables. (Manual)
Five a Day: The Produce Revolution – History of fruits and vegetables and how to select them (25 minute) video.
* Available on a free five-week loan basis from the Food and Nutrition Resource Center, Florida Department of Education. See the complete catalog at www.firn.edu/doe/fnm.
What are the Most Nutritious Fruits and Vegetables?
The following fruits and vegetables were rated according to the
amount of Vitamins A,C, and fiber they provide per serving.
The higher the score, the more nutritious.
Name Amount Vit A, RE Vit C, mg Fiber, g Score Rank
Sweet Potato 1 baked w/skin 2488 28 3.4 103 1
Gold Pepper* ½ cup 12 92 52 2
Carrot 1 raw, med. 2025 7 2.3 74 3
Orange* 1 medium 26 80 45 4
Red Pepper ½ cup, chop. 285 95 0.8 63 5
Cantaloupe 1 cup pieces 516 68 1.3 57 6
Strawberry 1 cup raw 4 85 3.9 53 7
Kiwi Fruit 1 whole 13 75 46 8
Honeydew* 1 cup cubed 7 42 24 9
Grapefruit ½ medium 32 47 0.7 28 10
Green Pepper ½ cup chop. 32 45 0.8 27 11
Broccoli ½ cup raw 68 41 1.2 27 12
Lemon* 1 medium 2 31 17 13
Tangerine* 1 medium 77 26 17 14
Cauliflower ½ cup raw 1 36 1.2 22 15
Tomato 1 medium 77 24 1.6 18 16
Avocado 1 medium 106 14 4.7 18 17
Lime* 1 medium 1 20 11 18
Pineapple 1 cup pieces 4 24 1.9 16 19
Potato, baked 1 medium 0 26 0 14 20
Spinach ½ cup chop. 188 8 0.7 12 21
Grapes 1 cup 12 17 1.1 11 22
Watermelon 1 cup raw 58 15 0.6 11 23
Asparagus* ½ cup boiled 48 10 7 24
Nectarine 1 medium 100 7 2.2 10 25
Cabbage ½ cup 4 17 0.4 10 26
Bartlett Pear 1 medium 3 7 4.3 10 27
Apple 1 medium 7 8 3 9 28
Banana 1 medium 9 10 1.8 8 29
Sweet Corn ½ cup boiled 18 5 3 7 30
Turnip, boiled ½ cup cubed 0 9 1.6 7 31
Summer squash ½ cup slices 13 10 0.8 7 32
Peach 1 medium 47 6 1.4 7 33
Green Beans ½ cup boiled 41 6 1.1 6 34
Plum* 1 medium 21 6 4 35
Radishes 10 0 10 0 6 36
Cherries 10 each 15 5 1.1 5 37
Onion ½ cup chop. 0 5 1.3 5 38
Green Onion ½ chopped 0 5 1.3 5 39
Celery 1 stalk 5 3 0.6 3 40
Cucumber 1 stalk 2 2 0.5 2 41
Mushrooms ½ cup pieces 0 1 0.5 1 42
Lettuce, Iceberg 1 leaf 7 1 0.2 1 43
* The score is based on Vitamins A and C. The fiber content of this fruit/vegetable is not listed in Bowes and Church’s Food Values of Portions Commonly Used, E16.
Food Tasting Lab
One of the goals of this activity is to try to elicit a behavior change, and to try new foods. This is difficult to accomplish if food is omitted. Here are some possible fruits and vegetables to use with this activity:
Red Bell Peppers Red Pear Yellow Bell Peppers Kiwi
Green Bell Peppers Fresh Pineapple Granny Smith Apples Broccoli
Broccoflower Honeydew Melon Baby Carrots Cantaloupe
Turnips Red Grapes Leaf Spinach Burro Banana
Celery Pomegranate 100% Fruit Juice Strawberries
Choosing new and unusual foods or foods from other countries can also enrich the activity.
The following amount of food is suggested to serve a class of 25 students.
Pineapple ½ fresh Strawberries 8 oz carton
Cantaloupe ½ fresh Broccoflower 1 head
Grapes 1 pound Yellow, Red, Green Peppers 1 each
Strawberries 13 berries Baby Carrots 1 pound
Low fat Ranch dressing ½ cup
Here are some suggestions for obtaining food:
1. Ask a local supermarket to sponsor the program. Contact the produce manager.
2. School funds.
3. PTA / PTO support.
4. Ask room mothers for support.
5. Ask each child to bring in one piece of fruit or vegetable. Assign specific food.
In addition to food, you will need:
1. Long toothpicks with colored crinkle paper on the top or wooden skewers.
2. Paper plates and napkins.
3. A serving spoon and container for the dip.
4. Two serving trays.
5. Paring knife to cut the fruit and vegetables.
Food Lab Procedures:
Teachers should contact the food service manager at least two weeks in advance to decide on the date, time and type of the tasting lab each class would like to have.
It is recommended that all tasting labs be scheduled after lunch to avoid spoiling the students’ appetites. However, food preparation may be done in the morning as long as students do not taste the food until after lunch.
Serving sizes for tasting labs will be adequate for a light snack, not for an entire meal. However, if the activity is being conducted in a school that has an After-School Snack Program or a Head Start Program, enough of the food can be served to meet the requirement of the components.
Food items are to be prepared and placed in separate containers in order that the students can assemble the ingredients to make the final project. In this way, students feel that they have done the food preparation themselves.
Caution should be used with students when they are in the cooking area of the cafeteria for tasting labs. Most tasting activities should be held either in the classroom or in the dining area of the cafeteria.
The food display table and seating arrangements in the cafeteria should be ready before the students arrive. The staff can place food items on the table as the students enter the cafeteria.
Special emphasis must be given to holding perishable products above 140° F. or below 40° F.
The staff should have washed the tabletop, counter or other surface used for the demonstration immediately before its use. They should place wet sponges or towels immersed in sanitizing solution on each table for use in the cleaning of spills. A trash should be available to discard waste and disposables. Leftovers should not be reused.
All students, teachers and other participants must wash their hands with soap and water before each tasting lab.
The manager and the teacher will remain with the students during the entire tasting lab. Together they will encourage, but not force, students to sample the food.
If students resist trying the food items, the manager and the teacher should encourage them to taste small bites, stressing that to learn to like new foods, they should continue tasting and eating them.
As a closure to each tasting lab, the manager or teacher can ask students for a show of hands to indicate their preferences of the items sampled.
The manager or the teacher will conduct this activity individually or collaboratively. For this learning experience to be a success, the cafeteria manager and the teacher must understand his/her role and responsibility. The support and approval of the principal are essential.
More Suggestions:
* Cut up the fruit and vegetables beforehand or let some students help during class.
* Have students make fruit kabobs by sticking one piece of each fruit offered on a
toothpick. Make a rule that no like fruit can touch each other.
* Students can also serve themselves one of each vegetable and dip (if desired). It is
important not to force anyone to take any of the foods.
* As the students are eating or when everyone is finished, use the Interesting Facts
about Fruits and Vegetables sheet to tell students some unusual facts about the foods
they are tasting.
Try to find a food-related symbol (stickers, buttons, etc.) to recognize those who tried all of the foods.
Super Survey 1
Name: ______Age: ______Grade: ______
Teacher: ______School:______Boy Girl
1. This is how I feel about eating FRUIT. (Circle one of these faces.)
2. This is how I feel about eating VEGETABLES. (Circle one of these faces.)
3. How many times did you eat VEGETABLES yesterday? (Circle one.)
None 1 2 3 4 5 More than 5 times
4. How many times did you eat FRUIT or drink FRUIT JUICE yesterday? (Circle one.)
None 1 2 3 4 5 More than 5 times
5. I think people should eat fruits and vegetables at least ______times every day.
6. My favorite snack is ______.
Super Survey 2
Name: ______Age: ______Grade: ______
Teacher: ______School:______Boy Girl
1. This is how I feel about eating FRUIT now. (Circle one of these faces.)
2. This is how I feel about eating VEGETABLES now. (Circle one of these faces.)
3. How many times did you eat VEGETABLES yesterday? (Circle one.)
None 1 2 3 4 5 More than 5 times
4. How many times did you eat FRUIT or drink FRUIT JUICE yesterday? (Circle one.)
None 1 2 3 4 5 More than 5 times
5. I think people should eat fruits and vegetables at least ______times every day.
6. My favorite snack is ______.
7. I tried eating a new VEGETABLE recently. YES NO
8. I tried eating a new FRUIT recently. YES NO