TITLE: Nutrition Across the Curriculum
AGE LEVEL: 5th
TEACHER INFORMATION: The teacher should have knowledge
of nutrition including the food pyramid, vitamins and nutrients,
and calories. The teacher should have knowledge of how to figure
averages and percentages.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION: In this unit, the students will learn
about the basic aspects of nutrition, including the food pyramid,
the vitamins and nutrients of the food groups and what they do
for the body. They will also demonstrate knowledge of figuring
calories and percentages. The students will learn about foods
eaten during different time periods, will compare and contrast
the foods of two different countries, will create a bulletin board,
make collages, and make presentations. The final activity will
be to write a paper on their findings.
MAJOR CONCEPT
What are the major food groups and the vitamins and nutrients
of each. The students will learn how a proper diet contributes
to a healthy body. They will also study calorie intake and the
recommended daily calorie intake.
OBJECTIVES
The students will write a paper, incorporating their knowledge
of nutrition, and incorporating the 6-traits of writing to write
a paper during one class period.
The students will demonstrate cooperation and communication
within their groups, to construct a bulletin board, collages,
and compile information from novels, over the course of the unit.
MATERIALS
- Science - Food pyramid chart, 7-day eating chart,
notes and worksheet that designate the vitamins and nutrients
of each food group and what they do for the body, nutrient profile
worksheet
- Math - Daily Food Intake chart (7 charts), Calories
for the Week Sheet, Cafeteria Critique sheets, school lunch menu,
paper and pencils, Recommended Daily Allowances Calories Intake
chart
- Social Studies - notes and information from different
time periods, paper for timeline, information from two countries
studied
- Language Arts - Little House on the Prairie books,
sheet outlining the requirements forthe Foods and Me paper
- Art - construction paper, typing paper, markers, staplers,
pictures from magazines, newspapers, or books
REFERENCS FOR THE TEACHER
1 Fun With Foods: A Recipe For Math and Science. AIMS
Activities Grades 5-9.
- The Mailbox. Intermediate. June/July 1997.
- Department of Health and Human Services.
REFERENCES FOR THE STUDENTS
Little House in the Big Woods - Wolves, panthers, and
bears roamed the deep Wisconsin woods in the 1860's. But Pa Ingalls
preferred to live miles from his nearest neighbors. This book
tells how the Ingalls's family survived with love and bare necessities
of life.
Little House on the Prairie - The Big Woods was getting
too crowded. So Pa sold the little log house and built a covered
wagon. They were moving to Indian country! They traveled from
Wisconsin to Oklahoma and there Pa built the little house on the
prairie.
By the Shores of Silver Lake - The Ingalls family had
fared badly in Plum Creek, Minnesota. They were in debt and Mary
was blind now. So Pa went to work at a railroad camp in the Dakota
Territory. But unfortunately, the railroad had brought many land-hungry
people from the East.
Little Town on the Prairie - The winter was finally
over and the people of De Smet, South Dakota, came outdoors and
began to live again. In the summer, Laura took grueling jobs to
help send Mary to a college for the blind.
Farmer Boy - Ten years in the future, Laura Ingalls
will marry Almanzo in South Dakota. But now, Almanzo is miles
away growing up in New York. His chores keep him busy, but it
is fun and he thinks it builds character.
CONTENT RELATED WORDS
Food pyramid, nutrition, calories, percentage, average, vitamins,
nutrients,
PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES
Science
- The students will study the food pyramid including the food
groups, and the recommended number of servings of each food group.
After learning about the food pyramid, the students will fill
out a 7-day eating chart. Each day, the name of the food and
a check mark for the number of servings is to be recorded. At
the end of 7 days, the total servings and average daily servings
are to be recorded. It is important that the students know how
to find the averages of the food groups. Explain that the average
is found by dividing the weekly total servings by the number
of days in the week. This activity could also work for mathUsing
a different food group each day, the students will learn about
the vitamins and nutrients of each food group and what they do
for the body. After all of the food groups have been covered,
the students will use their notes to fill out a worksheet about
vitamins and nutrients.
Math
- Each day, the students will enter the foods and calories
of the foods they have eaten on a Daily Food Intake chart. At
the end of the week, the total calories for each day's chart
are to be recorded on the Calories for the Week Sheet. Then the
students will consult the Recommended Daily Allowances Calories
Intake chart to see if they got the recommended amount of calories
each day.
- For ten days, the students will tally each food item on their
menu. After each lunch period, the students will then record
their results on the Cafeteria Critique chart. Each day, the
students will evaluate the lunch by making a happy, sad, or just
O.K. face by each day's number. On day ten they will do parts
1 and 2 as well as computing the percentage of meals they enjoyed,
disliked, and thought were O.K. They will also tally the total
number of servings for each food group for the ten days. Since
this activity requires the students to compute percentages, the
teacher will need to teach this concept.
Social Studies
- Over the course of the unit, the students will learn about
different time periods in history, the foods eaten during each
specific time period, and how eating habits have changed over
time. After studying the time periods, the students will construct
a time line to show what they have learned.
- As a class, the students will choose two countries that they
want to learn about and then study the foods eaten in the countries
and the eating habits. At the end of the unit, the students will
compare and contrast the foods and eating habits of the two countries.
Language Arts
- The teacher will divide the students into groups and then
assign each group to read a different novel from the Little House
on the Prairie series. Since the students will be reading independently,
it is each group member's responsibility to record any information
read about food from their book. Then during group meetings,
the members will share their findings and record them. After
each group has finished their novel, they will compile all of
their information and share with the other groups.
- At the end of the unit, the students will write a paper titled
Foods and Me. The paper will be written during one class period
and will be graded on the 6-traits. Before the students begin
writing, have them think about why proper nutrition is important,
the history of foods, and how the foods they eat are the same
or differ from those eaten in the past. They also need to think
about the Food Pyramid, what they discovered about the foods
they ate, and why vitamins and nutrients are important for a
healthy body.
Art
- As a class, the students will create a bulletin board on
nutrition. The class will be divided into groups and each group
is responsible for a specific task. For example, one group will
design the background, and another will be responsible for typing
up information. The students will be graded on cooperation and
communication.
- In groups, the students will cut out words and pictures that
relate to foods and nutrition from magazines and newspapers.
They will glue them on a piece of construction paper to make
a collage. Each group will share their collage with the class.
CULMINATING ACTIVITIES
- The students will take a test of all material covered.
- The class will form a presentation of all material covered
and present it in various classrooms throughout the school.
- Each student will be responsible for drawing his or her own
conclusions before an
individual conference with the teacher.
EVALUATION
- The teacher and students will create a checklist of appropriate
conduct for group work. The teacher will monitor the groups as
they work, checking off things from the list. At the conclusion
of the project, the group members will also fill out the checklist.
- Using a 6-trait rubric, the teacher will grade the students
Foods and Me papers. The papers will be graded on ideas/content,
organization, voice, sentence structure, word choice, and conventions.