The Food Pyramid

Feed ME: Bringing Food Education to Maine Schools

Lesson 2

Approximate teaching time: 30-45 minutes

Teachers will need:

This lesson will enable students to:

  • Identify the six food groups;
  • Explain what a serving is and how it relates to the shape of the Food Pyramid;
  • Explain why it is important to eat foods from all categories of the Food Pyramid;
  • List the six nutrients we get from food, what they do, and foods that contain them;
  • Put various foods into their correct food groups.

This lesson meets these national and state standards:

Maine State Learning Results, Health Education Grades 3-5

  • A1, Healthy Behaviors and Personal Health: Students explain the relationship between healthy behaviors and personal health.
  • A6, Basic Health Concepts: Students define basic health concepts related to … nutrition.

CDC’s Healthy Behavior Outcomes

  • HBO 1. Eat the appropriate number of servings from each food group every day.
  • HBO 2. Eat a variety of foods within each food group every day.
  • HBO 3. Eat an abundance of fruits and vegetables every day.
  • HBO 4. Drink plenty of water every day.
  • HBO 6. Limit food and beverages high in added sugars, solid fat, and sodium.

CDC’s Grades 3-5 Knowledge Expectations

  • HE 1.5.1: Name the food groups and variety of nutritious food choices for each food group.
  • HE 1.5.2: Identify the amount of food from each food group that a child needs daily.
  • HE 1.5.3: Describe the benefits of eating plenty of fruits and vegetables.
  • HE 1.5.4: Explain the importance of eating a variety of foods from all the food groups.
  • HE 1.5.6: Describe the benefits of drinking plenty of water.
  • HE 1.5.16: Describe the benefits of eating healthy.

Key:

Normal font (script)                      Italicized font (actions)    Bold font (questions)

 

The Food Pyramid

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Present the Food Pyramid.

Does anyone know what this is?

During our last lesson, we talked about eating whole foods. One of the most important parts of healthy living is balancing eating different kinds of whole foods and limiting your intake of processed foods so that you get all of the nutrients that your body needs. The Food Pyramid is a tool that explains exactly what you need to eat in order to get the right amount of nutrients.

 

(How to Teach Nutrition to Kids inspired this portion of the lesson.)

Reference Food Pyramid.

There are six categories in the Food Pyramid: the bread, cereal, rice, and pasta group (grains), the fruit group, the vegetable group, the meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, and nuts group (protein), the milk, yogurt, and cheese group (dairy), and the fats, oils, and sweets group. The size of each category on the pyramid corresponds with the amount of food, or number of servings, that we need to eat every day. The way we measure a serving depends on the food group. For example, one serving from the grains group would be a slice of bread. One serving from the fruit group would be an apple. The groups at the bottom of the pyramid take up more space, which means that we need more servings of these foods. The group at the top of the pyramid is for foods that consist primarily of fat and sugar, demonstrating that you should only eat a small amount of these foods.

 

Distribute Food, Nutrients, and You Handout. Reference Food Pyramid.

Each food group provides us with different nutrients, so we need to eat foods from all of the food groups to get the nutrients we need. Our bodies need forty nutrients, which we can separate into six groups: carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins, minerals, and water.

Write these nutrients on the board.

Can anyone tell me what one of these nutrients does?

Carbohydrates give you energy. Protein builds muscles and helps your body grow. Fat gives you energy and makes you feel full. Vitamins help you heal and fight off sicknesses. Minerals help you build strong bones, teeth, and muscles, and water cools your body and helps you digest food. We need the most servings of grains every day, six to eleven servings, because they are filled with carbohydrates, which give us energy. The fruit and vegetable groups are important because they give us carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and water. We need two to four servings of fruit every day and three to five servings of vegetables. The protein and dairy groups provide minerals and protein. Our bodies need two to three servings from each of these groups daily. Finally, the foods at the top of the pyramid give us fat. Like processed foods, foods in this category are “sometimes foods.”

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Activity:

Draw or project a blank Food Pyramid onto the white board. Break students into groups and distribute food pictures to each group. Give each student an origami Food Pyramid.

Now that you are all experts on food groups, we are going to see if you know where different foods belong in the Food Pyramid. I am going to give each group a stack of food pictures. I want you each to pick two pictures. Then, I am going to give you each an origami Food Pyramid. You can use this pyramid to help you decide which groups your foods belong in. When you are all ready, we are going to take turns coming up to the board and putting our food pictures in our class Food Pyramid. I want you to be able to explain why you chose to put your picture in a particular group.

Call students up to the board to place their foods in the pyramid and explain their reasoning.

Health-Nutrition