Spreadsheets for dinner

Students will identify spreadsheet terms, create a spreadsheet about nutritional content of foods, and add the columns of the spreadsheet.

A lesson plan for grade 4

By Laurie Myers

Learn more

• US Department of Agriculture Dietary guidelines for Americans
• Food Timeline What people ate during different historical periods
• School Menu A Flash website for kids about school menus
• Kids World Nutrition Another informational site aimed at kids
• Nutrition Explorations Further information about nutrition aimed at parents or teachers

Related pages

• Dear Tootsie Roll company: The students will measure the surface area and wrapper area of five pieces of candy. Using appropriate formulas and measuring techniques, they will complete information needed for a spreadsheet and database. Students wrap up the lesson by writing a letter to the company with the most wasted paper to explain how the waste affects them as consumers and a suggestion for correcting the problem.
• Catalog display for The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Carlson: This project is a culminating activity for the novel The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson. Rather than writing the traditional book report, students will create a catalog of items, characters, places, themes, ideas, etc. from the novel. The students will create the catalog on the computer.
• Light, camera, action! Shadows?: This lesson will demonstrate how the position of a light source or direction of light and the time of the day will affect the shadow images that are depicted in our environment over a period of time.

Related topics

• Learn more about computer/technology skills, education technology, healthful living, and nutrition.

Help

Please read our disclaimer for lesson plans.

Legal

Learning outcomes

Students will:

• identify spreadsheet terms: row, column, and cell
• resize the cells, insert data, and add the data in the columns
• be able to integrate technology into other curriculum areas

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

90 minutes

Materials/resources

• nutritional labels from several types of food
• menu planning sheet
• pencils

Technology resources

• spreadsheet program such as AppleWorks, ClarisWorks, or Microsoft Excel
• computer lab
• classroom computers
• internet access

Pre-activities

Students will have a forty minute introduction to spreadsheets in the computer lab. Rows, columns, and cells will be introduced. Students will be shown how to resize the cells and add columns. For practice, students will be given row heights, column widths, and a list of numbers to insert and add.

Activities

1. Together, teacher and students will visit nutrition websites to determine the effect fats, carbohydrates, cholesterol, sodium, and proteins have on your body. The class will discuss that fats should be moderate and cholesterol should be avoided.
2. Students will be given the task of planning a dinner menu. They will be provided with nutritional guidelines such as how much protein their dinner must have and what their cholesterol limit should be. The teacher will model on the board the sort of information the students will be required to look for and what they will have to write down.
3. In groups, students will be given a menu planner and nutritional labels from several types of foods. The groups will have to plan a dinner that will stay within the nutritional guidelines they have been given.
4. When they are finished planning their meal, students will go to the computer and create a spreadsheet that has columns for food, protein, carbohydrate, fat, cholesterol, sodium, and a row for the totals. Students will add up the columns to show that they stayed within the guidelines.

Assessment

Completed and printed spreadsheets in which the student has stayed within the nutritional guidelines.

Supplemental information

Attachments:

• Menu planner handout with guidelines for students
• Nutrition sample for students who may have trouble creating a spreadsheet from scratch

Comments

This entire lesson could be completed in a computer lab or in a classroom. Once the introduction to spreadsheets has been done, students could use them for a variety of learning activities.