Love your lunch Teachers’ Guide
Here are a range of activities that could be carried out with
your class to help increase their understanding about the
composition of a healthy lunch.

Give each pupil a lunch card from the
What’s my lunch made from? cards.
Ask the pupils to cut out the ingredients
and stick these into the correct groups
on the What goes where? worksheet.
Pupils should place the ingredients in
position first so they can be checked.
Give a group of five pupils a What’s my
lunch made from? Extras sheet each.
Ask them to cut out and stick an
appropriate food in any missing group/s. If there is already a serving in
the fruit and vegetable group, encourage them to pick another
serving. If pupils finish early, they can suggest and draw other foods on
their worksheet. You may wish to use the cards as a display or as a
stimulus for discussion.

Split the class into five teams. Assign each team one of the groups (e.g.
starchy food). Ask the team to create a poster promoting that group.
They can cut out pictures (from food magazines) or draw foods that
belong to the group. You might like to display The eatwell plate poster
as well as the Love your lunch poster to give the pupils more ideas of
what can be included in each group. Display these posters either in the
classroom or the school dining area.
o The eatwell plate poster:
http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/attachments/7765434d-a8b74c7e18e7e880.pdf

What is the pupil’s favourite school lunch? Ask each pupil to complete
the My favourite lunch worksheet. Create a display in school. Why not
share these with the catering staff?

Arrange a practical session where pupils make part of a school lunch.
Fruit salad does not require any cooking and is simple to prepare.
Simple recipes which require more cooking include pizza, fishcakes or
lamb rogan josh. After making the recipe, question the class on what
other food and/or drinks would be required make it a healthy,
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©British Nutrition Foundation 2013
balanced lunch (e.g. have rice with the lamb rogan josh,
fruit and yogurt for dessert and serve with a drink). Use the
poster to support discussion.
o Fruit salad:
http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/attachments/98c90f91-edfd494d5b9b3796.pdf
o Pizza: http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/attachments/fe272687af87-4d4a488c2792.pdf;
http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/attachments/dddc81de6127-4f052694b0f4.pdf
o Fishcakes:http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/attachments/a6d06
1e2-f6ac-4f906a07d907.pdf
o Lamb rogan josh:
http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/attachments/d3be8d4a-cfbc4bced2fbe114.pdf

Using the Composite lunchtime dish cards, look more closely at
composite dishes. Composite dishes are dishes that comprise more
than one food group from the Love your lunch poster. For example, a
pizza contains a starchy food (the dough base), fruit and vegetables
(tomato topping and any additional vegetable toppings), milk, yogurt
or cheese (cheese topping) and may contain a food from the meat,
fish, eggs, beans and other sources of non-dairy protein group
(chicken, prawns, ham, tofu). Ask the pupils to record the components
of the dishes on the Composite dish worksheet. Two versions are
available to support differentiation.

Provide the pupils with the What goes where? worksheet. Ask them to
record what they had for lunch today/yesterday in the relevant
columns. If there are any empty columns, ask them to suggest a food
or drink that they could have included. Use this to reinforce that they
need to choose a food or drink from each group for a healthy,
balanced lunch. You could ask them to
repeat this throughout the week – are
they having variety and balance? Pupils
could also create a chart showing school
lunches over the week, recording food
and drinks. Display these in the classroom
or dining hall.

Ask the pupils to keep a record of what
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©British Nutrition Foundation 2013
they ate at lunch over a school week. Ask them to
compare this with the poster to see whether any food
groups are missing. If possible, provide pupils with the
school menu and ask them what foods they could have chosen to
ensure they followed the poster.

Ask the pupils to create and make a dish for a
school lunch. They could ask other pupils to taste it
to provide feedback. They could then analyse
their recipe with Explore food, a user-friendly online
nutritional analysis tool. Invite catering staff to join
you.
o Explore food:
http://explorefood.foodafactoflife.org.uk/

Using the regulations applicable to your country
(available on the School Lunch Information Links) ask the pupils to
design a school lunch menu for a week. As well as following the advice
on the poster, the pupils may need to consider other factors such as
food or nutrient guidelines (e.g. regulations in Northern Ireland state fish
should be available at least twice a week in post-primary schools, so
the menu should feature fish on at least two days).

Ask the pupils to choose a group from the Love your lunch poster (e.g.
drinks, starchy foods). Ask them to research the group and create an
informative presentation. This could include
why the group is needed (e.g. yogurt, milk
and cheese provide calcium), pictures of
food or drink included in the group and tips
to help other pupils include the group in their
lunch. Display these in the dining area or in
the classroom.
www.foodafactoflife.org.uk
©British Nutrition Foundation 2013