Unit+of+Instruction

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**Title of Unit: Nutrition and a Healthy Lifestyle**

Author: Melanie Calhoun

Primary Subject (elementary) or Course (secondary): Science, Language Arts, Health and Safety Grade Level: 1st Grade


 * Introduction:**

This unit is about being able to recognize food as energy our bodies need to perform work, plants and animals are part of a healthy diet, exercise and rest are part of overall wellness, and clean water and air are all part of our ability to stay healthy. The purpose of teaching this unit is to introduce the concepts of diet, exercise, sleep, clean air and water are all necessary for health and wellbeing. The students will learn about the food pyramid which includes all the food groups and be able to identify fruits, vegetables, grains, proteins, dairy products, and fats/sugars, as well as where these items come from.

 Eating a balanced diet, excersizing, getting proper rest, and staying hydrated are the keys to living a healthy lifestyle. The food on our tables comes from farms and ranches before it goes to the store. Plants and animals are included in many healthy diets. What types of food we buy and consume have effects on our environment. Clean air, water and proper food handling contribute to a healthy life.  Identify 5 fruits, 5 vegetables, 4 grains, 4 proteins, 3 dairy products, and 2 fats/sugars. Identify where different food items come from (plant or animal source), and that the food was grown or raised on a farm/ranch/greenhouse. Identify minimal food packaging and how that impacts the environment. Identify a what a balanced diet looks like. Identify proper food handling/storage and the importance of clean air and water.
 * Unit Objectives:**
 * Student will understand…
 * Student will be able to…


 * Time Required:** This unit will be developed as a two week series of lessons covering a portion of the unit daily, for approximately an hour each day.


 * Lesson 1**

Title of lesson: Introduce the Food Pyramid and the different food categories involved.

Description of lesson: This lesson will start with a scavenger hunt, found on the scavenger hunt page, with the students using the internet website links to fill out the food pyramid with the foods they think go in each category. They will work in groups of two to a computer. This will just introduce the food pyramid lesson. This should take about thirty minutes to complete.

Assignment (homework or in-class): This will be done in-class.

Resources/materials needed: The scavenger hunt wiki page will need to be accessed by the students on the computers. Each student will e-mail their finished scavenger hunt to me for review and grading.


 * Lesson 2**

Title of lesson: How Our Bodies Use Food

Description of lesson: This lesson will involve listening to three podcast mini lessons on the concepts of why we need food, and a general idea of how our bodies use the food, vitamins and minerals that we eat. These mini lessons will each be followed with ten written questions for the students to answer.

Assignment (homework or in-class): This lesson will be completed during class time on computers followed by five minute desk time after each mini lesson to answer the questions. media type="file" key="Podcast 1.mp3" Click here to listen to the first segment on how our bodies use food - taken from Learning About Nutrition

media type="file" key="Podcast 2.mp3" Click here to listen to the second segment on how our bodies use food - taken from Learning About Nutrition

media type="file" key="Podcast 3.mp3" Click here to listen to the third segment on how our bodies use food - taken from Learning About Nutrition Resources/materials needed: Computers, Learning About Nutrition lesson planning book, typed up questions, and pencils.


 * Lesson 3**

Title of lesson: Quantity and a Balanced Diet Description of lesson: This lesson will cover more specifically what a balanced meal and a proper portion look like. Using pictures of familiar foods and paper plates, children will be able correlate the idea of a balanced diet to their meals served on their plates.

Assignment (homework or in-class): This activity will be done in class. The students will use a piece of construction paper for a place mat, and glue a paper plate, plastic fork, knife, spoon and a napkin onto it. They will cut out, color the food using appropriate colors for that food item, represent proper quantities and a balanced diet and glue those items onto their plate. The Whopper Rubric will be used to evaluate the final project.

Resources/materials needed: Health and Nutrition planning book used for food pictures and place mat lesson. Whopper Rubric Crayons/Markers Construction paper Plastic forks, knives, spoons Napkins Glue


 * Lesson 4**

Title of lesson: Where Our Food Comes From - Plant and Animal Sources

Description of lesson: This lesson will involve asking the students to research where different foods come from. Each student will pick five different foods of their choice, each from a different food pyramid category, and investigate the source of the food product as coming from a plant or an animal. Each student will make a poster board with the two categories, plant or animal, as sources for where the food originated and then place a labeled picture beneath the correct side of the poster for which that food represents. The final posters will be displayed in the classroom and each student will present their findings to the whole class.

Assignment (homework or in-class): [|Click Here To Begin Research Project]



Resources/materials needed: [|Resource Books From My Library]


 * Lesson 5**

Title of lesson: Clean Air, Water

Description of lesson: This lesson will cover why clean air and water are vital to healthy living. By introducing these ideas, students will become aware of pollutants and how they affect our health.

Assignment (homework or in-class): This activity will be done in the classroom. The lesson will begin with the reading of the book, __Common Ground: The Water, Earth, And Air We Share__, by Molly Bang, followed by a discussion of the book and how clean water and air affect our overall health. Next, we will do a science experiment to demonstrate how contaminants that leach into our water sources get absorbed into the plants we eventually consume. We will use a carnation, celery and colored water for this experiment because these two types of plants will show the color absorption process.

Resources/materials needed: Food coloring Celery Carnation 2 jars


 * Lesson 6**

Title of lesson: Safe Food Handling

Description of lesson: This lesson will be taught through a dramatization of the story of BAC, with the students stepping forward and holding up the picture that corresponds to the reading at that time. This will introduce safe food handling and practices as well as be an introduction to reader's theater presentations and learning dramatic skits.

Assignment (homework or in-class): This lesson will be done in the classroom with the students each holding up and stepping forward with the appropriate picture when read while the teacher reads the story of BAC. Similar to reader's theater, but the teacher does the reading. This could be adapted to reader's theater. As a final assessment of this lesson, student will be able to list five places germs can be found, and five ways to eliminate BAC. The following rubric will be used to grade their work.

Resources/materials needed: Computer attached to SMART board if available, or print-out of BAC story from link below. The following is a link that takes you to the BAC story and hand washing rhyme. http://pfsehost.p2technology.com/images/pdfs/K-3StoryofBAC.pdf Pictures of: backpack, raw fruits & vegetables, shoes, books, baseball glove, hands, counter, food, milk, refrigerator, water, soap, BAC, no BAC sign (circle with line through it).


 * Lesson 7**

Title of lesson: Exercise, Rest and Relaxation

Description of lesson: A brief introduction about the ideas that rest, relaxation and exercise are a part of a healthy lifestyle will be covered. Once these ideas have been introduced and discussed, then the students will delve into the physical fitness aspect of this topic.

Assignment (homework or in-class): This lesson will take place in the classroom and take approximately forty-five minutes to complete. The students will be broken up into groups resulting in four to five groups. Each group will be assigned an exercise station where they will create three different exercises, one for upper body, one for lower body, and one for cardio. If they need help figuring out what to do for their station, they will have access to the computer and the library. Another option is to do the station planning in the morning or the day before, so they would also have the option to e-mail the physical education teacher for help. Once each group has their three exercises listed on a white board, including how many of each exercise to do, then the class will rotate through the stations performing all the exercises listed.

Resources/materials needed: Overhead to brainstorm different ways to relax White boards for exercise lists at stations Background information on how much sleep and exercise this age student needs with common comparisons to what adults require.


 * Lesson 8**

Title of lesson: Food Likes, Dislikes and Allergies

Description of lesson: The students will be asked to research one of the foods they like the most, finding out what category of the food pyramid it belongs to, at least one important aspect the food source provides in the diet, how much this type of food should be in the diet, and what source this food comes from. All of this research will emphasize the prior lessons and culminate in this project to provide evidence of the student's learning through a practical application. They will then use Voki to create an animated character that will share those details with the class as the final project for this part of the lesson. The use of creating a character to deliver the product of their research is to motivate, give them a chance to express themselves creatively and inspire their peers to broaden their knowledge of a variety of foods. There will be a separate discussion on food dislikes and allergies before this part of the lesson begins. To address these two aspects, students be asked to raise their hands and tell the class one food they dislike, the teacher will write them on the board with their name and make comparisons amongst the students and their dislikes. The teacher will discuss briefly some common food allergies, such as peanuts, milk-lactose, and wheat-gluten. Assignment (homework or in-class): media type="custom" key="4041871" Resources/materials needed: The students will be able to research their food choice on the internet and in books. Then they will need access to the computer to create their character on Voki. This lesson will take about an hour and a half, with the research time of thrity minutes, character creation of thirty minutes, and class sharing of thirty minutes.


 * Lesson 9**

Title of lesson: Food Drive & Nations of Starvation

Description of lesson: The teacher will introduce the concept of some nations not having enough food for their people and the consequence of malnutrition and starvation. Next, the teacher will lead the students in a brainstorming session of how others could help. Lastly, the teacher will give three examples of countries who are suffering from malnutrition and/or starvation and let the children decide which country they will start a food drive for.

Assignment (homework or in-class): Some of this assignment will be done as homework, such as the food gathering. The rest of the project will take place in the classroom. The class will write a letter as a group to explain our gift to the receiving authorities. The children will be able to list three ways to help starving nations and identify three nations in need as a final group review, using sticky notes with ideas to help in one column and nations in another.

Resources/materials needed: Recent statistics on nations and their starvation status Overhead for brainstorming ways to help Contacts to complete food drive mission Sticky notes


 * Lesson 10**

Title of lesson: Protecting the Environment - Smart Food Choices

Description of lesson: This lesson will introduce the concept that as we purchase food products we are essentially voting for those items. We will discuss that when we shop, we should be looking for products with minimal packaging, biodegradible packaging (and what that means), and that even the containers we use to carry our groceries from the store make a difference, such as reusable canvas bags and net produce bags, as well as making a decision to use cloth napkins instead of paper, metal or paper straws instead of plastic ones, and even bringing containers in the car when we go out to eat for left-overs instead of requiring styraphome or plastic (non-reusable) containers, etc.

Assignment (homework or in-class): This lesson will be covered in the classroom. A guest speaker may be called upon to share with the class regarding this subject matter, or the teacher will collect these items so the students can see examples of ways to make better food choices and overall habits surrounding food and eating. An informal assessment will be done by students raising their hands to share what they have learned on this topic, and students will be given an environmentally friendly item for each correct response, ie - paper straw, cloth napkin, canvas grocery bags, etc.

Resources/materials needed: Styraphome item Metal, paper and plastic straw Canvas grocery bags Net product bags Regular plastic grocery bags and produce bags Example of reusable tupperware container for food left-overs Other resturant togo containers - metal, paper, plastic, etc. Paper napkin and cloth napkin Assessment environmentally friendly prizes


 * Unit Conclusion:** As a concluding activity, I will have the students get into groups of four and play this game as a class. The reason for using this to close the unit on Nutrition and a Healthy Lifestyle is because it will be a great review and the students will be motivated to share what they have learned with each other as a result of this unit. It will encourage them to recall what they know and use that knowledge to win the game. media type="custom" key="4038905"