Lesson Plan #: AELP-INT0100

Fun with Food: The Food Pyramid

An Educator's Reference Desk Lesson Plan

Submitted by: Lisa Gassiott
Email: leg6202@unix.tamu.edu
School/University/Affiliation: Texas A&M University
Endorsed by: Claudia Sanchez
             Texas A&M Universiy

Date: April 29, 1999

Grade Level(s): 3, 4

Subject(s):

Duration: 60-90 minutes (can be divided)

Description: The student will learn about the Food pyramid and a well balanced diet through interactive and group activities. The lesson will be taught from an ESL perspective.

Goals:

1. The students will be learning about the Food Pyramid and what types of food go in each category.
2. The students will be able to create and recognize a well-balanced meal.
3. The students will be able to share and recognize foods from different cultures.

Objectives:

1. The students will interact through a brainstorming session on foods that they like and food they eat at home.
2. Given a worksheet, students will identify the Food Pyramid and learn about the foods in each category.
3. Working in groups of mixed abilities to make a well balanced meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner of their favorite foods, students will draw and label the pictures correctly.
4. The students will give an oral presentation of their findings to the class.

Materials:

Procedure:

Introduction/Lesson Preview:

1. Brainstorming session: The teacher will have the students share foods that they commonly eat at home or their favorite foods that they eat at home. The teacher will write some of these foods on the board. The teacher will tell the children that they will later be putting these foods on the food pyramid.

(Sharing food in the classroom will give a multicultural perspective on the different cultures in the classroom. Children will also feel more comfortable dealing with food that is familiar to them.)

2. Reviewing Prior Knowledge: The teacher will write the word pyramid on the board and help the students to draw one on their own. The teacher will then tell the students that they will be using a pyramid to help them make food choices.

Presentation

1. Next, the students will be given a worksheet that has the food pyramid on it with the proper food groups labeled and what goes in each category. The worksheet will also explain how much of each food they should eat.
2. The teacher will read the worksheet with the students and help them to name the foods on the pyramid. The teacher will also ask questions like:

What are the foods we need to eat the most of? ( cereal, bread, rice, pasta)
What are the foods we need to eat the least of? ( butter, margarine, oils, sweets)
3. The teacher will have the students look at the pictures on the worksheet. The students will read the names of the foods as they point to them.
4. The teacher will then refer back to the list of foods that the children ate at home and the class will try to figure out which food goes in each category. The teacher will probably have to help the children figure out where some of the foods go on the pyramid.
5. Next, the student will break up into groups of mixed abilities to work on a group activity (groups should be no bigger than 3). The activity will be for the students to make a menu of balanced meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The students will draw and label the foods that they choose. The teacher will encourage the student to have food they eat at home or food that they would like to eat at home.
6. The teacher will prompt the student with questions to get them to evaluate the decisions they made on their menus. The teacher may even write the questions on the board. These will also help the students to process the information they learned cognitively.
Questions:
7. When students are done, they will share their meals that they created with the class.
The teacher will then display the meals around the room or on a thematic bulletin board.

Possible Problems/Solutions:

Problem1: What if the students aren't familiar with some of the foods listed on the pyramid. Solution: The teacher could bring actual food or dry goods from home to show the students.
Problem 2: What if the students cannot decide which cultural meal to make. Solution: Tell the students to compromise by using a meal from each culture.

Enrichment Activities/Extensions:

1. All About Foods Worksheet- This is a simple word search with words that the the students will have learned in the unit. The students will circle the vocabulary words from a word bank.
2. A fun extra activity, if time permits: Read to the students Sip, Slurp, Soup, Soup, Caldo, Caldo, Caldo by Diane Gonzales Bertrand. The book is a bilingual book from a multicultural perspective. In the book, a family is making soup and adding certain ingredients. The teacher can first read the book to the students and then have the students put the ingredients in the proper food category of the food pyramid. The teacher can even make the soup with the student participation and everyone can enjoy!
3. The teacher could draw a big food pyramid on butcher paper with all of the categories labeled. The teacher could then bring actual food items from home (non-perishable) and the students could place the food items in the proper categories.

Assessment:

The students will be assessed on how well they worked in the group and the final product of their meal

Resources:

Scott Foresman Level 4 ESL Resource book