Year: Year 1
Lesson Coverage: Muncher
Curriculum Covered: KS1
English
En1 Speaking and listening
1a-f, 2a,c, 3a,b, 8d
En2 Reading
1b
En3 Writing
2a, 4a,e,g, 5a-e
Maths
Ma2 Number
1a, e, 2a,b,c, 3a
Science
Sc1 Scientific enquiry
2a,b,f
Sc2 Life processes and living things
1a,b, 2b,c,g
ICT
Knowledge, skills and understanding
1a, 5b
Art
Exploring and developing ideas
1a, 4a
About the Game
This game has 3 levels, Level 1 is most appropriate for children in Year 1. The main learning
points within this game are:
 Food is good for you
 Food keeps you alive and well
 Some foods help your health more than others
The aim of ‘Muncher’ is to munch foods that you think will help you and keep you healthy and
miss things that are not as healthy and may slow you down. The directional arrow keys on the
keyboard control the character Munch. The score will increase as Munch proceeds around the
grid, picking up extra points from power packs and bonus points. Bonus points become
available during the game, they are represented through the following foods:





Apple
Chicken
Carrot
Bread
Potatoes
The foods listed have been chosen to illustrate a balanced diet. Children at this stage are
initially given 3 health levels, the score decreases each time Munch is caught by one of four
coloured sweets.
Lesson Plan
Before online activity
Have a whole class discussion with the children about healthy
foods. Possible discussion questions could include:
o
o
o
Which foods are good for you?
Do all foods keep you healthy?
Do we always eat healthy foods?
Introduce children to computer area and seat with their computer
partner if appropriate.
During online activity
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Introduce children to computer and keyboard.
Help children with the computer start up procedures and
entering of the My School Lunch website. Ask children to
select the ‘For Fun’ section.
Ensure that all children have selected ‘Muncher’ and chosen
Level 1.
Encourage children to try and read the ‘How to play’
instructions. Some children may require adult help.
Ensure all children have selected ‘START’.
Talk to children about what they can see on screen, Munch,
Power pack, Sweets, Bonus points, Stage, Score and Health
Level.
Possible online activity questions:
o Where is Munch?
o What is Munch?
o Can you see the power packs? (Describe appearance)
o How many sweets are there?
o Do they keep us healthy?
o What foods can you see?
o Why will they give Munch more points?
o Are the foods healthy?
o Are the foods all the same?
o Why are they different?
7.
Show the children how to use the arrow keys to control
Munch.
8. The game can be restarted easily by selecting ‘NEW GAME’
and ‘START’.
9. Encourage more able children to keep a record of each
others scores in a table.
10. Encourage children to alternate players and help each other
with the game.
11. At the end of the session help the children with closing the
website and shutting down procedures, if required.
Following online
activities
Additional Resources
Paper
Pencil
Coloured pencils
The activities suggested below may be more appropriate when all
Year 1 children are familiar with the game.
Activity 1: Muncher Maths
 Ask the children to invent scores for each of the foods in the
‘Muncher’ game: apple, chicken, carrot, bread, potato.
 Get the children to consider which food should have the highest
score and why.
 Demonstrate to the children how they can develop a key and
then make sums out of the foods they have allocated points to.
For example, chicken = 10 points, carrot = 7 points
Chicken + carrot = 17 points
 Ask children to work individually and produce 5 sums from the
foods used in ‘Muncher’. Encourage the children to represent
the foods with illustrations.
Activity 2: Munch Your Lunch
 Ask the children to pretend that they are Munch and look at
what they ate for lunch today/yesterday?
 Tell the children to draw pictures to illustrate school
lunch/packed lunch and then write a list of the healthy foods
from their meal.
 Follow this with a class discussion, looking at how the children’s
lunch would score in ‘Muncher’.
Activity questions:
o Did you have a healthy lunch, which foods would give
you bonus points?
o Which foods would catch you and slow you down like
the coloured sweets?
o Would you win ‘Muncher’ with your lunch?
Support/Extension Ideas
The ideas below are given to support the less able and extend the more able children in Year
1.
Support Ideas
 Seat less able child with a more able partner (child/adult).
 Teacher to encourage children to use word banks when
labelling food illustrations.
 Encourage children to use only two foods during the Muncher
Maths activity.
 Help the children to write mathematical symbols ( -,+, =) if
required.
Extension Ideas
 Encourage more able children to help less able children play
‘Muncher’.
 Allow children to write their own mathematical symbols (-,+, =)
during Muncher Maths.
 Encourage children to use scores above 15 during Muncher
Maths.
 Children to attempt spelling their own words during Munch Your
Lunch.
 Ask the children to compare individual scores:
Who scored the highest/lowest?
Did anyone score the same?