At a Glance Grade Level: 3rd-4th class Subjects: Science, Mathematics Topics: Nutrition, Health, Consumer Awareness, Persuasion, Business Time Needed: 4 weeks, 5 hours/week Key Learnings: Importance of Diet, Persuasive Writing, Planning Healthy Meals, Interpret Food Labels Background: South Carolina, United States     Things You Need Standards Resources Print This Unit (PDF; 26 pages)

Curriculum Framing Questions

	Essential Question How can I stay healthy?
	Unit Questions How do my eating habits affect my health and growth? How do I plan a healthy, nutritious diet?
	Sample Content Questions What is the food pyramid? What is the right number of calories for me?

Instructional Procedures
Getting Started (Note: A Nutrition Notes sheet summarizes many of the concepts addressed in these lessons. The information is presented as background for the teacher; you may want to make copies for students as well.) Begin this study of health and nutrition by asking students: "If, as the saying goes, 'You are what you eat,' does that make me a cheeseburger? What does that phrase mean? Is it true? In what ways?" Promote a discussion about nutrition, and record prior knowledge, interesting ideas, questions that arise, and possible avenues for answering questions. Make sure this central question is introduced: How do eating habits affect health and growth? Pass out nutrition learning logs, or have students create their own, and direct learners to answer this question: What factors influence your food choices? (Ask this question again at the end of the study, to see if new awaremess has been achieved.) When writing is finished, ask students to contribute their ideas, and cluster these under logical categories such as: hunger, taste, visual appeal, health, convenience, habit, novelty, cultural tradition, cost, and advertising. Homework Assignment: Ask students to bring in nutrition charts that are on all packaged foods. These will be used on lesson 4, Planning Your Diet.

Nutrition Basics (See: Nutrition Notes before proceeding) Introduce the five food groups and the food pyramid. Lead a discussion on what comprises a healthy diet and how important it is to eat the recommended servings from each food group everyday and a wide variety of foods from each food group. Students draw the food pyramid in their nutrition learning logs, labeled with the recommended number of servings for each food group. Through a film, or aided with charts or diagrams, address the nutritional value of each of the food groups. Explain portions and how to count composite foods like sandwiches, which may account for 1 meat serving, two bread servings, one vegetable serving and one fat/other serving.
Students get familiar with the five food groups by creating large food group posters that will hang in the classroom. Tack six pieces of butcher paper (approximately five feet long) up along a wall and label them with Milk/Dairy, Meat, Vegetable, Fruit, Grain, and Others. Students cut pictures of food from magazines, circulars, and newspapers and glue them to the appropriate banner.
For the next five days, students keep a food diary of everything they eat and drink. Include a weekend day to see if eating habits are different from the rest of the week. At the end of the five days, students total the number of servings they ate from each food group, find the daily average of servings from each group, and create a daily average graph and compare it to the recommended number of servings.

Food is Fuel Introduce the concept of food as fuel, and the term calorie. (See: Nutrition Notes) Show students how to find their ideal daily calorie level as recommended in the Nutrition Notes calories chart. Ask students to reflect on one day's diet from their food diary. (They have been recording this!) Students use an Internet-Calorie Calculator* to find and record the total number of calories in that day's diet, then answer these questions: Do you eat the proper number of calories, too few, or too many? How can your diet be altered so you consume the right amount of calories? How can your activity level be altered? Homework Assignment: Reflect on the day and estimate how many minutes were spent engaged in different activities during waking hours. Record these activities in the nutrition learning log. Activities might include sitting in class, sports practice, watching television, walking to school, PE class, and doing specific chores.

Activity Fueled by Food Discuss the activity log homework assignment. Have students pose questions for the group, such as: What was the most common activity? What was the most strenuous activity recorded? Who expended the most energy? How many hours did the whole class spend in front of the television? Using the Calories Burned Calculator* teach students to calculate how many calories their specific activities burned. Create a large classroom chart that shows common activities and the calories they require. Make a miniature version of this chart for students to glue inside their learning log.

Making Choices Discuss food choices, and the impact of small changes in diet over time. For instance, a person can choose to have a glass of milk or a can of soda with lunch-- How do these foods compare nutritionally? Have students choose two foods, research their nutritional value (using print or electronic sources), and compare them. Using spreadsheet software, help them create nutritional food label graphs. Students may practice interpreting each other's graphs and record their interpretations in their nutrition learning logs.

Planning a Healthy Diet Introduce the unit question: How can you plan a healthy, nutritious diet? Have a brief discussion to share ideas. Using the food group banners, food pyramid diagram, nutrition charts from packaged food labels, and cookbooks as resources, students plan a day's menu that meets nutritional requirements and stays under 30 percent fat.

Advertising and Food Choice In preparation for creating their own persuasive food commercial/slide show for their restaurant, teach students to evaluate the persuasive elements of Saturday morning television advertising. Discuss the features of commercials (targeted audience, hook, message, sound and visual appeal, and descriptive words) that draw us in, causing us to want the product being advertised. Practice observation techniques in class before students try this at home. In advance, tape children's programming on Saturday morning between 7 and 10:30 a.m. Cue up a food commercial. Using a chart or overhead transparency of a TV ad observation form , run the videotape and demonstrate how to record information about the advertisement. Pass out the observation form and have pairs of students record information from another food commercial. Assign this activity as homework for a Saturday morning. Ask students to write a summary of their information and be ready report back to the class the following Monday. When lessons resume, discuss the assignment, and help students identify general themes in advertising.

Restaurateurs Set students to work in small groups to create their own restaurant menu and advertising campaign. The menu includes:

	A restaurant name
	A tagline or slogan for the restaurant
	Restaurant description
	Menu items with a description of nutritional values
	Address, phone number, operating hours information
	Digital pictures, graphics, or scanned artwork may be included

As an extension activity, have them compare caloric and nutritional values of their menu to that of a fast-food restaurant* they have visited. Challenge kids to find the worst and best food item in each restaurant (a worst example: Burger King Double Whopper with cheese - 932 calories, 54 grams of fat).

Persuasive Commercial - Student Multimedia Presentation To promote their restaurant, have students create their own convincing slideshow commercial or video commercial to encourage people to visit their restaurant. These should reflect the advertising tactics they learned about during the Saturday morning commercial observation activity. The commercial has these components:

	A title slide with the name and slogan of the restaurant
	Restaurant description
	Address, phone number, operating hours information
	Reasons why people should visit the restaurant
	Examples of the healthy features of their menu

Have students develop a storyboard plan of their commercial before they work in the computer lab. Photocopy menus and show commercials to the class, and discuss the appeal and nutrition of the restaurants.

Culminating Activity-Opening Night "Open" one or two restaurants each day, with restaurant groups serving their classmate customers. Restaurateurs pretend to take orders, figure a bill, compute a 15% tip and count back change from €10.00. Buddy classes, specialists, and the principal might enjoy "dining" at the "restaurants", too.

Other Food Topics Throughout the unit the teacher presents lessons about food and nutrition. Lessons and activities might include:

	How food moves from producer to consumer
	The politics of food
	The price of food - What fraction of a family's dollar goes for food? How does this compare to fifty years ago?
	Food origins
	Historical trends in food
	Culture and food
	Compare cultural food pyramids
	The birth of convenience foods
	Genetic alteration in foods
	Health risks related to poor nutrition (obesity, rickets, scurvy, kwashiorkor, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease)
	Famine then and now
	Food-borne pathogens

Differentiated Instruction

	Resource Student These projects are open-ended and allow every student to participate successfully. Students work in heterogeneous pairings or small groups to do research and complete unit projects. Students receive extra adult assistance as needed, and additional work time or task modifications as described in their Individualized Education Plan.
	Gifted Student Gifted students may serve as experts in reading, writing or technology use. They may also choose to do research on an aspect of health or nutrition that was not focused on in class. (See Other Food Topics in Procedures, above.)
	English Language Learner (ELL) The ELL teacher may help students translate basic terms into an English/native language glossary. Posting translated terms around the room allows all students to learn new vocabulary. The ELL teacher can explain new concepts, help students complete journal entries and conduct research for their projects. Bilingual students can be paired with non-native speakers for tasks that require reading and writing. Journal writing may be completed in the native language for later translation. Assignments may be adapted, or allowed more time when necessary.

Assessment
Students demonstrate their learning as they respond in their learning logs to questions posed at transition points in the unit. Frequent probing for understanding allows the teacher to monitor and adjust instruction in a responsive way. A final summative evaluation may be based on these prompts:

1. You go out to breakfast with friends. Wanting to eat in a healthy way, what do you order and why?
2. What kinds of foods would you choose for healthy snacks? How are these foods different from those that fit in the "Others" category?
3. Your family goes to a fast-food restaurant for dinner. Wanting to eat in a healthy way, how do you choose what to order?
4. Have your eating habits changed? How?
5. What influences your food choices? How do you deal with these influences?
6. Student journal responses, class participation, the slide show (commercial), and brochure (menu) are assessed using the project rubric.

Credits
A classroom teacher participating in the Intel® Teach to the Future program, developed the idea for this unit plan. A team of teachers expanded the plan into the example you see here.