Michigan Agriscience Education
For Elementary Students
Grades 3-4
Reading Nutritional Information Labels
on Cereals
OBJECTIVES:
- To connect the grains with the cereals they eat.
- To read and compare nutrition information found on labels
MATERIALS:
- Variety of empty cereal boxes
- Samples of grains in see-through containers.
Wheat, Corn, Rice, Oats and Barley.
PRE-LAB:
Have students write about what their favorite cereal is and what ingredients are in
it.
PROCECURE:
Pass out a cereal box to each student. Have each student note the kind of cereal
they have and find the Nutrition Information label. Then find the ingredients
subtitle to see what is in their product.
Tell them all ingredients are listed in order from most to least.
Ask each student to see what grains are in their cereal and point it out from the
grain samples.
Ask how many have sugar listed as the second ingredient. Does that mean there’s a
lot of sugar in that cereal? Does anyone have a cereal that doesn’t have sugar or
corn syrup in it?
The last ingredient listed is in the smallest amount of all ingredients in that cereal.
What does your cereal have the least of?
Now look at the top of the Nutrition Information label. What is the title? Usually
it’s “Nutrition Facts.”
Look at the serving size. It usually tells you two things—the amount in cups (or
pieces if it’s a product other than cereal such as cracker, cookies, or bread) and
the weight of that much of the product. What is the measurement untied used for
the weight? Grams. How big is that? What are
your serving sizes?
The next line tells you the number of servings in that box.
The next part tells about the calories in one serving of that cereal and the number
in the second column tells you how many calories are in one serving of that cereal
with ½ cup of skim milk added to it. All the rest of the information is given in the
same way—the first column is about the cereal itself and the second column is
about the cereal with milk.
Notice the number of calories that are from fat. Do you want that number to be
large or small? Why?
Look at the rest of the nutrients in your cereal. Notice that there are amounts and
percentages. The percentages compare the amount of all the nutrients your body
uses each day. What is the total fat? What’s the amount of protein? Do you want
more fat or protein? What does protein do for our bodies? They build cells.
Look at the total carbohydrates. This is the largest amount of the cereal’s
nutrients because that’s what the grains provide for us. What use are
carbohydrates to us? They give us energy.
The kinds of carbohydrates are also listed under the total carbohydrates. There’s
dietary fiber, sugars, and other carbohydrates. Do we want the sugars to be a
large number? If there are sugars listed, look at the ingredients again and see if
sugar is listed near the beginning.
The vitamins and minerals in your cereal are listed as percentages. The
percentages tell you how much of the daily amount you need of that vitamin or
mineral you are getting in a serving. If there’s 25 percent of the Vitamin A that
you need in a day in one serving of cereal, how many more servings of that cereal
could you eat to get 100 percent?
The vitamins and minerals are also listed under the ingredients on most of the
labels. Is it good to have a lot of them listed there?
What nutrients do we want the least of? Fats, sugars, calories. What nutrients do
we want more of? Proteins, other carbohydrates, and dietary fiber and minerals.
Answer the questions on the quiz comparing the Nutrition Information labels.
NOTE:
This lesson should be used after students have read about nutrients and learned
about the Food Guide Pyramid.
* Original can be found at Kansas Ag in the Classroom, www.ksagclassroom.org
Worksheet 1
Name: ___________________________________
Use the nutrition labels on the following page to answer the questions.
1. Which has the larger serving? __________
2. Which gives amounts for just the cereal and the cereal with milk added to
it? __________
3. How many calories are in a serving of B? __________
4. Which has more percentage of vitamins and minerals needed by your body
each day? __________
5. How many calories are from fat in A? __________
6. Which has more sugar? __________
7. What grain is in A? __________
8. What grain is in B? __________
9. Which has more protein? __________
10. Which would be the better cereal for your body? __________