Making the Link:
Incorporating Nutrition into the Curriculum
Elementary Council Day
May 4th, 2012.
Shauna Miller, R.D.
Dietitian, Public Health,
Horizon Health Network,
Fredericton, N.B.
Phone #: 453-5238
Making the Link
Incorporating Nutrition into the Curriculum
The connection between health and learning is well established. Research supports the relationship between nutrition and cognitive development. Students who are well nourished perform better in school because they have an improved ability to concentrate and fewer behavioural difficulties. *
Nutrition is an important component of the health curriculum; however, with the demands to meet numerous curriculum outcomes, it is often difficult for teachers to deliver effective lesson plans on nutrition that are meaningful to student learning and ongoing throughout the school year. Food literacy is a term that is becoming more common and refers to a board range of issues relating to food including: learning about where our food comes from, how food is grown or processed, how to prepare and cook food, label reading, etc. It is essential that our children and youth become more food literate as a means of promoting health, learning and over all well being.
It is important that nutrition education be incorporatedinto key curriculum delivery. The following document provides a sample of activities that focus on teaching key nutrition information that is integrated into math, language arts, social studies, health and art curricula.
* Florence, M.D., Asbridge, M, & Veugelers, P.J. (2008) Diet quality and academic performance. J. School Health. 78: 209-215.
Bellisle, F. (2004) Effects of diet on behaviour and cognition in children, British Journal of Nutrition. Supple. 2: S227-232.
MATH LINK
Draw a table on the board with one row for each drink (see example below. Drinks listed in table are just an example. It is suggested that students collect various empty beverage containers and use those for the table. Students could collect empty containers from the class recycling bin and give them a quick wash). Show empty drink containers and ask students to guess how many teaspoons of sugar are in each drink. Write guesses on the board. Calculate what the difference is between guessed number of teaspoons vs. actual number of teaspoons. Students may also be challenged to calculate how many teaspoons of sugar they drink in one day. Have students create bar graphs or line graphs showing their intake of beverages over a week. Have students determine if their intake of certain beverages changes on weekends as opposed to week days.
In order to calculate actual teaspoons of sugar, use the following conversion:
1 teaspoon of sugar = 4 grams of sugar
For example, one 355 mL can of Coke contains 42 grams of sugar (carbohydrate) or 10.5 teaspoons of sugar (42 divided by 4 = 10.5).
Drink / Guess teaspoons of sugar / Actual teaspoons of sugarCoke
Gatorade
Fruitopia
Five Alive
Slushie
Next, have students record the results from the following questions:
By show of hands, how many students regularly drink pop?
By show of hands, how many students regularly drink milk?
How many students drink more milk than pop?
How many students drink more pop than milk?
Have students create a pie graph showing the class intake of different beverages over a typical day. Students could use actual numbers or determine percentages. What percentage of students drank more sugar sweetened beverages than milk and/or water?
Alternative:
Purchase a 1.2 kg bag of sugar and 10 small packages of sugar (or 10 sugar cubes). Note: one small sugar packet or one sugar cube is equal to 1 teaspoon of sugar or 4 grams of sugar. Explain to the students that an average can of pop (355 mL) contains 10 teaspoons of sugar. Have students calculate the amount of sugar they would drink if they had 1 can a day for 1 month (i.e. 30 days). Answer: 1.2 kg (show 1.2 kg bag to students)
1 can pop = 10 teaspoons sugar
1 can pop per day for 30 days = 300 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon sugar = 4 grams of sugar
300 teaspoons sugar X 4 grams of sugar = 1.2 kg sugar
One can of Coke contains 10 teaspoons of sugar. One bottle of Fruitopia contains 16 teaspoons of sugar. One large Slushie contains 24 teaspoons of sugar. If a person drank 2 cans of Coke, one bottle of Fruitopia and one Slushie, how many teaspoons of sugar would they drink? What if they did this for one week? One month? One year?
Health
High sodium intakes are associated with increased blood pressure, a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. The higher the pressure in your blood vessels, the harder your heart has to work to pump blood throughout the body (just like water in a hose). Many adults, and even children, have elevated blood pressure and do not even know it. Most people eat about twice the amount of salt that they should in a day. Seventy five percent of the sodium that we eat comes from processed and restaurant food.
Help students understand recommended sodium (salt) intake and percent Daily Value (%DV) on the Nutrition Facts panel by having students look at a variety of food labels. The amount will be given in milligrams (mg). The Nutrition Facts panel will also give the % Daily Value (% DV) which helps you to see if a food has a little or a lot of a nutrient. Five (5) % DV or less is a little and 15% DV or more is a lot. This applies to all nutrients. For sodium, the %DV is based on a recommended intake of 2,400 mg per day. Have students do the math to see if the %DV is correct based on the mg of sodium in the food. For example, if a granola bar had 85 mg of sodium per 1 granola bar, it would have a % DV of 4% or a little sodium. (85 mg / 2400 mg X 100% = 4%).
Refer to for more information.
LANGUAGE ARTS
Have students find ads for food or beverages and post them on a board in the classroom. Compare the ads with actual labels that students bring in from home. Have students write comments about the persuasive features of the ads and then pin the comments to the pictures. Ask students to then create an ad to sell milk, fortified soy beverage, 100 % fruit, vegetable juice or water.
Have students write a short story entitled “My Healthy Day”. Encourage students to write about healthy choices they could make throughout their day including eating habits, activity habits, helping others, the environment, their community. You could choose one or two people from each class to present their story to the remainder of the school at an assembly or to read over the announcements.
Have students create a poem (or series of poems such as sonnet, haiku, quatrain, etc.) on a topic related to healthy eating (i.e. Canada’s Food Guide, vegetables and fruit, healthy snack choices, breakfast, a meal with my family, etc.).
Have students conduct a debate on a nutrition related topic. Suggested ideas include:
- Should junk food be allowed to be sold at arenas?
- Should energy drinks be allowed to be sold to youth under 16 years of age?
- Should energy drinks be banned from the school grounds at your school?
- Should sugar coated cereals be allowed to offer free toys in their cereal boxes?
- Should advertisements for junk food be allowed to be aired on T.V. before 8:00 P.M.?
Have students prepare and present a persuasive speech on a food related topic. Ideas include the importance of eating breakfast, the importance of eating vegetables and fruit, the importance of limiting junk food.
Have students work individually or in small groups to make a newsletter about healthy eating. Encourage students to include the following:
- Name and header for newsletter
- News article
- Illustrations
- Did you know?
- Comic strip
- An advertisement
Have students write a health tip for the monthly school newsletter or for the school website. For example, it could be a “Did you know?” fact about a nutrition topic.
(Math link)
Have students keep a food diary for two days (possibly a day during the week
and a day that falls on a week end). Have students create a variety of graphs to track when they eat certain foods (i.e. time of day they eat foods/ beverages in CFG and those not in CFG), differences in foods/beverages eaten each of the two days, adequacy as per CFG recommended # of servings, etc.)
(Math link)
Have students read their favorite healthy recipe to the rest of the class. Recipes could be combined and sent home as a gift from the students to the parents. Cooking is a great way to learn fractions. For example, if a recipe calls for ¾ cup of flour you could measure with and half cup and quarter cup measure or 3 quarter cup measures. Or, if the recipe calls for ¾ cup of flour and you wanted to double the recipe, how much flour would you need? What about if you wanted to cut the quiche into 8 equal parts?
Also talk with the students about basic food preparation skills such as reading the entire recipe before starting, doubling or halving the recipe, proper hand washing, cleaning as you go, setting the table, good table manners, eating together as a family, etc.
A simple recipe that students could make if there is a stove available in the school is apple sauce. The sauce can then be used to make healthy muffins for a snack for the students. Consider combining this with a visit to the apple orchard so students can pick their apples, support their local apple grower and learn more about the crop.
(see recipes at end of document)
Here is a great web site with an interactive game entitled “The Virtual Grocery Store”. This game can be played in either English or French. Students must read to learn how to play the game and to answer questions about which products to “buy”. They will learn about Canada’s Food Guide and how to make healthy choices in the grocery store and will compare numbers on food labels to determine the healthier choices.
HEALTH LINK
Discuss with students the concerns with drinking too many sugar sweetened beverages (increases risk of developing cavities, replaces nutritious beverages such as milk, 100% fruit juice and water, makes it difficult to maintain a healthy weight).Discuss the fact that we all make decisions every day- some small and some not so small. Ask students to provide examples of some decisions they have made, both big and small. Some decisions appear small on the surface but can have a significant effect over time.
Explain the importance of milk to the skeletal system and that it is important to invest in your bone bank when you are young so that you will have strong bones when you are older (Old X-ray films of a healthy bone and osteoporotic bone are great for showing how calcium in milk and physical activity help to build strong bones. Check with your local hospital to see if they can help you out).
Also explain the importance of water in keeping our bodies healthy (helps to transports nutrients, helps the body get rid of waste products, helps to keep your body cool). Explain that we should drink water freely throughout the day and more in hot weather or when exercising.
Activity: Bump Out
Place skipping rope in a circle on the floor (represents a stomach). Ask for 8 students to volunteer (3 will be milk and 5 will be water). Write milk and 3 Post –It notes and give one to each of 3 students. Write water on 5 Post-It notes and give one to each of the remaining 5 students. Ask all 8 students to stand in the circle (stomach is full). As you read to story (below) ask for students to volunteer to be a sugar sweetened beverage (they could hold an empty can representing that beverage) and they take to corresponding beverage cut out and come into circle. To allow them to fit in the circle either a water or a milk must leave.
Story
Anna is a grade 4 student at HappyElementary School. She is 9 years old and loves to spend time with her friends, listen to music and play basketball.
This morning Anna got up at 7:00 A.M. in order to have enough time to get ready, have her breakfast and walk to school. After making her bed, Anna went downstairs and made her breakfast. Anna had a bowl of cereal with a banana and milk. Anna was thirsty so she had a glass of fruit flavoured beverage (10 tsp sugar). When she finished her breakfast, Anna brushed her teeth and headed off to school.
At lunch time Anna gathered with her friends for lunch. Everyone was talking about the exciting things they learned that morning and their great teachers at their School. They were also very excited because they heard that Billy and Bobby may be visiting their school again soon! For lunch Anna had a chicken sandwich, carrot sticks, a yogurt, a bottle of pop (10 tsp sugar) and an oatmeal cookie. Anna headed for her afternoon classes and noticed that part way through the afternoon she was starting to feel very tired. Anna decided to have a sports drink (10 tsp sugar) before basketball practice.
That evening Anna’s friends called and asked her to go to the new Harry Potter movie. Anna was excited to go to the movie and spend time with her friends so she finished her homework and headed off to the movie. When she arrived at the movie she decided to get a Slushie (24 tsp sugar) to sip on through the movie. What a great movie she thought! She also thought about how lucky she is to have such a nice school and wonderful friends to do fun things with.
ART LINK
Have students create drink cut outs and hang in the school hall way for students and staff to see. Have each student choose a beverage and research the Nutrition Facts of their chosen drink (either online or in the grocery store). Have students make an outline of their drink container (bottle, glass, carton, juice box, etc.) on a plain, white sheet of paper. Add the drink name and colour the container. Add one or two key marketing messages to help “sell” the drink. Place the following information on a second plain, white piece of paper with the same outline: Nutrition Facts table and the ingredient list. Explain that ingredients on all labels are listed in order of weight from the most to the least. Place the 2 pieces of paper together and laminate if possible. Hang the students’ creations for all to see!
Math
Using a paper plate have students create a healthy, balanced meal by choosing one food from each of the four food groups of Canada’s Food Guide. They can draw and colour their pictures or cut pictures out of a magazine or grocery store flyer. Teach students that half of their plate should be vegetables or fruit (best if 2 or more colours), one quarter should be starch (potato, rice, pasta, bread, couscous, bulgur, barley, etc.) and one quarter should be protein (poultry, lean meat, fish, tofu, beans or lentils). See how many different meals the class can come up with.
Alternative:
Social Studies
Encourage students to research foods from other countries and include ethnic foods on their dinner plates. Place a large map on the wall and place the plates on the country where the food comes from.
SOCIAL STUDIES
Math
The Earth as An Apple Activity
Consider the earth as an apple. Get an apple and do the following sequence, or read the activity slowly and imagine or draw each action. Slice an apple into quarters. Set aside three of the quarters.
“These represent the oceans of the world. The fourth quarter roughly represents the total land area left.” Slice this land quarter in half, giving you two 1/8th world pieces. Set aside one piece.
“This is land inhospitable to people (polar areas, deserts, swamps, very high or rocky mountainous areas.) The other 1/8th piece is the land area where people live (but the foods needed for life cannot necessarily grow here.)” Now slice this 1/8th piece into four sections, giving you four 1/32nd pieces. Set aside three of these pieces.
“These are areas too rocky, too wet, too cold, too steep, or with soil too poor to produce food. They also include the areas of land that could produce food but are buried under cities, highways, suburban developments, shopping centers, and other structures that people have built.” This leaves a 1/32nd slice of the earth. Carefully peel this slice.
“This tiny bit of peeling represents the surface, the very thin skin of the earth's crust upon which humankind depends. Less than five feet deep, it is a fixed amount of food-producing land.”
Fact: It takes 100 years to make 1 inch of top soil.
“When we see the small amount of land that produces our food, it's easy to see that protecting land resources are important. Advanced agricultural technology has enabled the world to feed many of its people. But, with a fixed land resource base and an ever-increasing number of people trying to feed themselves from the fixed base, each person's portion becomes smaller and smaller and more important to the individual person. We must protect the environmental quality of our air, water, and land.”
“The water we have on earth today is all the water we'll ever have.
The water on earth is comprised of: 97.2 % salt water