Making Happy and Healthy Food Choices

Grade Level: Third Grade

Suggested Group Size: Whole class

Subject: Health

Standard: (3)3.2 It is expected that students will: classify personal daily intake using the

food pyramid as a guide.

Objective: Students will be able to identify the five major food groups and build their own

food pyramid. Students will understand what the daily intake is for each food group and can

use their pyramid as a resource to make conscience healthy and balanced food choices in their

everyday life.

Materials: White copy paper, kid scissors, crayons and markers of at least five different

colors, glue sticks and magazines that will be used for finding images of food.

Procedures:

Pre-Activity

Today the class will piece together their own food pyramid that they can take home

with them at the end of the day to share with their family and begin their healthier lifestyle.

The entire class will be doing this project together, following along slowly with each step that I

do. First begin by having the objective written on the board and asking the entire class to repeat

the objective out loud together. Once they have repeated the objective back to me clearly, I will

ask for 5 volunteers by having them raise their hand respectfully to pass out the materials

needed for the project. One volunteer passes out a sheet of paper to each student, one
volunteer passes out a pair of scissors to each student, one volunteer passes out an assortment

of crayons and markers to each student, one volunteer passes out a glue stick to each student,

and the last volunteer will pass out magazines for students to pass around and look for images

of food. While the volunteers are distributing the supplies, ask the remainder of the class these

questions “What do you already know about the food pyramid?” and “Why is it important to

have a balanced diet?”. Call on some students to just verbally share their answers with the

class. This is to keep the classroom fully engaged while preparing and setting up the activity and

asking these questions is a good way of learning what your students prior knowledge on the

subject is. Once all the supplies are passed out, begin demonstrating how to construct the

pyramid.

Activity

Have the students draw the largest triangle they can on the piece of paper that will

allow them the room to create five sections stacked on top of each other with enough space in

each section to write the name of the food group, some examples of foods in that food group

and whatever images they find. Have the students cut out the triangle from the piece of paper.

Explain that there are five main food groups that need to be included and have students draw

lines horizontally across their pyramid to section off five separate parts. Have students start at

the bottom of the pyramid and label that section Grains, then have them work their way up the

pyramid with labels. The section above Grains is Vegetables. The section above Vegetables is

Fruit. The section above Fruit is Milk. The section above Milk is Meat and Beans, which should

be the top of their pyramid. Without using any outside resources, students can brainstorm
examples of these food groups. Ask the class to raise their hand with examples for each food

group and write them on the board as they are giving them to you. Have students take a

minimum of three examples from the board for each food group to write in each section. Once

all sections have been labeled with the five main food groups and each group has at least three

examples, have students color the background of the sections with a different color for each

one so each section stands out. When all of the sections are colored in, have students flip

through appropriate magazines and cut out images of food that they can paste on their

pyramid in the appropriate food group.

Post-Activity

The finished product should be well organized and easy to interpret. Once the entire

class is finished up with the arts and crafts portion of the lesson, draw their attention back to

the objective. Present a finished food pyramid to the class and explain that it is important to eat

foods from each of the food groups. Explain the importance of not consuming an abundance of

foods that come from the same food group because you will lack the nutrients your body needs

that come from other food groups.

Assessment: A performance assessment after the activity will be given to students to

determine what knowledge and skills they took from the lesson. The assessment will require

students to individually come up with a balanced breakfast, lunch and dinner meal that has

foods from a variety of food groups.