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!

iPad Apps

As students have used iPads in the classroom and have gone home asking their parents to play with the same apps. Parents have asked me for a list of apps that I would recommend.

Here is a list of Apps that I have used in my classroom so far. Just click HERE to go to my Symbaloo Recommendation page.

If you would like to see any thing else I have recommend to my parents, here is my classroom website page: www.grijalvaasuprep.weebly.com/links.html

Awards

During the summer I was fortunate enough to have been one of the recipients of ING Unsung Heroes Award. I was one of two Arizona winners and the only one from Phoenix, AZ in 2013. I felt proud and honored to be able to accomplish my Green Power Project.

Also during this summer I was a recipient of Scholastic's Clifford Be Big Project. 

Thanks to funds from these awards and from Donors Choose. I have been able to integrate iPads into my classroom as we get closer and closer to accomplish year 1 of Green Power. The iPads in my classroom has made an impact in my student's learning and my teaching. 

This past week I have created a video to enter in PBS Learning Media Digital Innovators Contest. I hope I get the opportunity to become part of this wonderful community and enhance my digital teaching strategies.

This video quickly summarizes the impact that iPads has had in my classroom and my students excitement to engage in their learning. 

Ms. Yard- Measurement Story

Last Year: In all of my years of teacher I never had a difficult time with students learning unit conversations for length, but I am glad this class did. As I went over the concept over and over again I realized that my students had difficulty remembering the numbers that will help them convert the measurement. They knew how to do convert the measurement but didn't know the essential facts. 

On the spot I created Ms. Yard, which I created as a spin on Dan

Gutman's Weird School Series books that my class and I love. After I told my class Ms. Yard's story they all remembered the simple facts and were easily able to convert the units.

This year I was excited to teach this concept once more using Ms. Yard's story. Just like last year this was a great success and my student's loved it! The story changed a little bit but it still had the same outcome. Students knew the measurements and their equivalents. 

Here is a ScreenChomp lesson recording of Ms. Yard's story. 

I hope your students and you enjoy this story. 

Contractions

With the wonderful second grade team I am working with this year it seems like we are addicted to tab books. When it came time to teach contractions I created this tab book to help students practice and understand contractions. 

Students wrote on what a contraction is in their own words. 

I used a Power Point that I created that takes the students through the definition of what is a contraction, most common contractions, and activities. The PowerPoint has a slide for the contractions that are on the tab book, the slides explains the contractions, what letters are removed and replaced with an apostrophe, and examples of the contraction family.  Students then wrote this information on their booklet as a reference and practice. As I go through the slides, I use had movements to learn the contraction patterns.

Student Example

This booklet and PowerPoint are available at my TPT store. 

Character Traits