Healthy vs non-healthy foods

Students will use Kidspiration software to classify healthy foods and non-healthy foods during our Food Guide Pyramid unit.

A lesson plan for grade 1 Computer/Technology Skills and Healthful Living

By Michele Tipton

Learn more

Related pages

• To eat or not to eat: After reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, students will sort the foods the caterpillar ate by foods they need or don't need for their body.
• Food choice in our everyday lives: Focuses on everyday foods and how these foods relate to the food pyramid. Students will recognize food vocabulary in the target language (Spanish) and will make healthy food choices by creating thinking maps, a school menu in the target language, and exploring food choices from around the world.
• Identifying oily foods: Discovering healthy snacks: Using a drop of water and a drop of oil for comparison, students do food rubs to detect oily content in foods. The lesson culminates with a cookbook of healthy snacks.

Related topics

• Learn more about food pyramid, hands-on, health, nutrition, read-alouds, and technology skills.

Help

Please read our disclaimer for lesson plans.

Legal

Learning outcomes

Students will:

• distinguish between healthy and non-healthy foods.
• click and drag a food to the correct section of the food guide pyramid.
• print out their work.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

3 days

Materials/resources

• Books about healthy food and the food guide pyramid.
• Food Guide visual, with healthy foods and non-healthy foods. Use velcro to attach foods in the correct place.
• White paper plates
• Magazines
• Gregory the Terrible Eater by Mitchell Sharmat

Technology resources

• Kidspiration software
• Computer for each child
• Computer display TV

Pre-activities

Students will need to know about foods that are healthy and good for us. They will need to know about foods that aren’t good for us. Talk about the food guide pyramid as an aid to help us make healthy choices.

Activities

Day 1

(45 minutes)

1. We begin this unit by reading the book, Gregory the Terrible Eater by Mitchell Sharmat. This story leads us to talk about foods that are not good for us.
2. I introduce the Food Guide Pyramid. We can use the Food Guide Pyramid to help us make healthy choices. I have a felt shaped Pyramid that I display.
3. I go over each section of the pyramid and discuss types of foods that belong in each section as well as how many servings of each food group we should eat daily. Then I hold up felt shaped foods and asked for students to tell me which food group that food would go into.
4. I ask along the way if it is a good food or one we need to eat sparingly. Then we hand out felt shaped foods to each child and have them to decide what group the food belongs to and they put it up on the pyramid.

Day 2

(30 minutes)

1. We review the Food Guide Pyramid, good food choices and how many servings of each group you need to have a healthy balanced meal.
2. Students are then given magazines, paper plates, glue. The activity is for students to cut out pictures of a healthy meal and glue it to a plate.
3. We allow the students to share their “plate.”

Day 3

(1 hour)

1. Students go to the computer lab and have log on to their computer. They open Kidspiration.
2. I use the TV display to demonstrate to the students what they will be doing. We open the already created template in Kidspiration called Food Guide Pyramid.
3. Then I click on the foods on the left and drag them to the correct area of the Food Guide Pyramid.
4. Then I have students work independently on classifying the foods into their pyramid. After classifying their foods each student should type their name and date.
5. Each student will print a copy of his/her work for the teacher to grade.

Assessment

Check their print-out of the Food Guide Pyramid to see that the food was placed in the correct section.

Supplemental information

Comments

This is always a fun unit for students. They enjoy learning about good and bad foods. If time allowed, I would invite the cafeteria manager to bring in food samples and have a tasting party.