Keeping an Online Food Journal

Tech Integration Lesson Plan designed for 1st - 3rd grade

Kelsey Anderson and Kat Duarte

Tracking Your Food and Exercise Intake
http://www.kidsfoodjournal.com/
Students will be learning how to track their eating habits and exercise on an online
food journal called kidsfoodjournal.com. This is a valuable resource for younger students to
learn what sort of healthy foods help the body be strong and work hard. This particular
resource allows students to track their daily exercise, water intake, and healthy food
choices and gives them the chance to earn periodic online rewards for eating healthy or
exercising daily. This isnt an all-encompassing food journal, but allows students to see a
few of the better food choices they can make on a daily basis, such as drinking milk and
eating fruits and vegetables.

Standards:

ISTE: Technology operations and concepts-Students demonstrate a sound

understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations.
-Understand and use technology systems
-Select and use applications effectively
and productively
-Troubleshoot systems and applications
-Transfer current knowledge to learning
of new technologies

Component 1.5 of Health and Fitness Standards: Understands relationship of nutrition

and food nutrients to body composition and physical performance.
GLE 1.5.1 Understands how the bodys function is affected by food consumption.
-Describes groups of the Food Guide Pyramid.
-Understands that food provides energy for the body.

How to log your daily food and exercise in

kidsfoodjournal.com
Week 1
Day

Instructional Plan:

(What might you

need to consider as
you are teaching?):

Process
Day 1

Notes:

Teaching Point: Students will be able to identify some of the important

characteristics of being healthy, including making wise food choices and

If teacher has a
classroom blog,

Introduction

exercising.
Materials: Food journals for each student
http://www.kidsfoodjournal.com/download/Kids.Food.Journal.English.
1day.pdf
Plan: (2-3 step bulleted overview)
Introduce students to healthy food consumption. This will be a
large group discussion brainstorming examples of healthy food
choices, or foods that are good for you. Students will also think
of ways people can exercise during the day. Students will also
brainstorm foods that are not so healthy or bad for you.
Show two videos: The first is a story with animated characters to
explain healthy eating to children. The second is a video
explaining the food groups of the food pyramid.
http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/envh10.sci.lif
e.oate.vegetables/healthy-eating-habits/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kbAxZMrrek#t=46 Have a think, pair, share about something they learned from the
videos, or something they are looking forward to learning more
about. The videos should act as a tool to get students excited
about making healthy eating choices.
Introduce the idea of a food journal. Why would a food journal be
useful? What will it help us do?
Hand out the one day food journals and explain that they should
start with their next meal. Talk about the pros and cons of this
journal - what is it missing? What food items are not included?
How does this journal help us keep track of what we are eating?
Explain vocabulary such as reps on exercises

Day 2
Login

Assessment: Teacher will record student questions and excitements to

revisit at the end of the unit.
Teaching Point: Students will be able to use a class ID and password to
log in to their own profile on kidsfoodjournal.com
Materials: Screencast of logging in to kidsfoodjournal.com, class ID and
login on paper for each student, a 1-day food log for each student.
Plan: (2-3 step bulleted overview)
Students will be given a piece of paper with their class ID and own
personal password. Teacher should encourage students to keep it
somewhere where they will not lose it. Students may also want
the class ID and password to use for home use.
Students will watch the prepared screencast of logging in to
kidsfoodjournal.com. This screencast can be found at:
https://vimeo.com/113527537
Students log in with the class ID and personal password.
Students will be given another 1-day food log and be asked to
complete it for class the next day. They should include all meals
they eat between class and the next day at school.

he or she may
decide to
include a post
about the food
journals, asking
parents to
remind their
students to
record their
daily food and
water intake
and exercise
data.
Parents should
be encouraged
to record their
own data.

Students will be
given their own
login and
password.
Teacher will
have these
logins and
passwords
created ahead
of time.
Students should
continue to
record their
food, water and
exercise data
daily.

The screencasts
should be
posted on the
classroom blog
so that parents
and students
have a way of
accessing the
information
again at home.

Day 3
Recording

Assessment: Teacher will go around to each student and confirm that each
child has successfully logged in.
Teaching Point: Students will be able to take their food, water and
The teacher will
exercise data from their written journals and record it onto their digital
have a list of
journals on kidsfoodjournal.com.
logins and
passwords for
Materials: Screencast of recording food, water and exercise data
students who
kidsfoodjournal.com, class ID and passwords
may have
forgotten this
Plan: (2-3 step bulleted overview)
information.
Students will take out class ID and passwords given from the
previous day.
It might be
Students will watch prepared screencast of recording food, water beneficial to
and exercise data on kidsfoodjournal.com. This screencast can be
have the steps
found at:
to logging in
https://vimeo.com/113527374
(and the
Students will log at least their first day of food intake and exercise website)
on to their kidsfoodjournal.com.
written on the
If time permits, students will also log their second day of food
whiteboard for
intake and exercise.
students to
reference.

Assessment: Teacher will confirm that each student is successful in

recording his or her data. Think-Pair-Share: have students respond to the
question to a close neighbor: Why do we use food logs? What do they help
us do?
Teaching Point: Students will keep a food journal for two weeks and
Plan at least a

Day 4
Recording

periodically update their online kidsfoodjournal. The teacher may choose

to plan some additional classroom time to discuss healthy food choices,
exercise choices, and other healthy habits. A list of extensions is below.

few times a
week for
students to log
in to their food
Materials: computer lab, daily food journals, class ID and passwords
journal and
record their
Plan: (2-3 step bulleted overview)
data. Its
Students will record their food and activity intake over several
important to
more days or weeks.
gather data
When class time permits, students will use computer lab time to
over several
log in to kidsfoodjournal.com and fill out the food they have eaten different days
and the activities they have done.
to get a real
If class time permits, students will think, pair, share with a partner understanding
about how their eating habits have changed since they started
of the type of
recording their food and activity on kidsfoodjournal.com.
food and
Students will have a closing discussion about how and why it is
exercise
important to keep track of our food and activity. They will also be students are
able to say what has helped them think about their eating habits
getting.
throughout this assignment.
Assessment: Students will be able to verbally explain if and how their
eating and activity levels have changed, and why it was useful to use the
online tool to observe the food and activity intake.
Extensions: Depending on how much classroom time is given to this
health unit, teachers might choose to extend the discussion beyond just
keeping a food journal. One of these ideas is highlighted on day 5 of this
lesson plan, but there are many other ideas:
identifying the food groups and how to balance meals
Various games, activities, and worksheets involving healthy eating
can be found at: http://www.choosemyplate.gov/kids/index.html .
A lot of these links and activities could be tied in to computer time
while using kidsfoodjournal.com.
Create a picture graph of the food and exercise intake of the entire
class to see how much everyone has eaten cumulatively, or at
individual desks to show different changes in eating.

The template for this lesson plan was taken from Sarah Ferris from her ELED 481 course.