5 Food Groups-Nutrition

Earlier in the school year our class did a nutrition unit where students learned about the 5 food groups and the good and sometimes foods to eat.

This was a fun and interesting unit to work with my students. When working on the food groups it was amazing to hear all the misconception that students had.


One of the biggest WOW misconceptions that I heard students ask me was is Orange Juice part of the Dairy group. I had to think really hard about why students had this misconception and came up with a conclusion.


According to the new Food Group Chart from Myplate.gov dairy is in a circular cup. My students thought that anything that is drinkable was a dairy product such as orange juice and water. As a result many had difficulty understanding that dairy can also be a solid like cheese.

As part of this unit I asked students, super market, and teachers to donate different grocery weekly ads for a real life application of the food groups. With those ads we did three different activities.

1. Food Group Flip Book:

Students looked through the ads to find healthy foods that fit into the different food groups. They placed what they found in this flip book I created.

Students enjoyed looking through the ads discussing with their teammates what could be placed in each food groups. I loved this activity and I am looking forward doing this activity again next year.

       You can find your FREE copy 

here. 

It was amazing to see how many students did not have experience with the ads. They did not know how to read them nor how to find specific categories. It is for sure the art of reading ads has been lost.



2. My Plate Poster:
I traced a poster size of the My Plate diagram and had students work in a group to put examples of healthy food that are part of each food group. This activity is similar to the flip book but instead of having a reference book it is in the plate diagram and students are exclusively working as a group. I did this acidity to give the students' ample opportunity to understand the food groups and talk though the misconceptions many had developed.

3. Sometimes Food:
The easiest activity of all, using the grocery weekly ad students looked for foods that fit the sometimes foods. Students enjoyed this activity and I had some unique and unexpected answers as shown in the picture for this activity.


When I was doing this unit I searched and searched the Internet for good ideas. Through my search I was amazed the resources that the US Government has provided for teachers and parents. Myplate.gov has excellent resources for teachers both hard copies and digital.

There are songs that students just loved and begged for me to play over and over again.

You can find lesson plans and the activities that go with them for free at various grade levels. They are made to fit the needs of each grade level.

My teammates' favorite resource was all the supplies you can order for FREE! You can get posters, worksheets, lessons, books, and so on. ALL HERE for FREE. They even ship it for free.  A huge thumbs up for USDA!