Content Area: Health and Physical Education

 

Index: 2.1C Grade 4 CPI 2

 

Standard: 2.1 - Wellness

 

Strand: C - Nutrition

 

Cumulative Progress Indicator: 2 - The student will classify foods by food group, food source, nutritional content, and nutritional value.

 

Grade: 4

 

Sample Activities:

 

·        RATING THE SUPERHERO FOODS - Wash and cut fruits and vegetables into small pieces and place on serving trays. Display the cut-up fruits and vegetables attractively at several stations around the room. For each fruit or vegetable, you need a brown paper lunch bag with the name of the item on the outside. Students move from station to station tasting and rating each item. Give each student a rating sheet that provides a scale of 1 (not so good) to 10 (great) for each item displayed. Encourage students to try new items. Circulate and reinforce the importance of protector foods. After the students have tasted and rated all the foods, each student deposits his/her rating sheets in the corresponding brown paper bags. Divide the class into small groups and give each group several of the bags to tabulate the ratings. Create a large chart or poster with the ratings and summarize. Students complete a journal entry outlining three things they learned about health protectors.

 

·        PYRAMID CONSTRUCTION - Students create a Food Guide Pyramid model (or design one using a computer program) and list foods that are appropriate for each section of the pyramid. Students can use clip art, magazine pictures, or drawings to enhance their pyramid.

Variation: Share the “Dietary Guidelines for Americans”. Explain that there are many national health organizations that collaborate to provide citizens with up-to-date information about nutrition and health. An easy way to remember the guidelines is through the Food Guide Pyramid. Ask students: “How does healthy eating contribute to overall wellness? How do you feel when you eat healthy versus when you eat too much junk food?” Correlate healthy eating with increased energy levels, the body’s ability to fight off simple diseases, and more efficient and productive use of muscles. Give each student a copy of the pyramid to complete the chart with appropriate representative foods for each section.

 

      Variation: Divide the class into small groups. Students review magazines for pictures of foods that are representative of categories in the Food Guide Pyramid and create a collage of the pyramid.

 

·        I WENT SHOPPING - On large index cards, write the names of each of the food groups found on the Food Guide Pyramid. Divide the class into two teams. Hold up a card and ask the first team member to name a food belonging to that food group. If the student guesses correctly, he/she remains standing but moves to the back of the team line. If the student answers incorrectly, the other team has a chance to respond. If a student repeats a food, it is an incorrect answer. The last team member standing wins for his/her team.

Variation: One student compiles a list of all the foods mentioned during the activity. Students look through magazines to find pictures of those foods and create a bulletin board collage. Students add new foods to the display every day.