◆ Divide the class into groups. Assign each a different food group and have them
collect pictures/words from magazines, the newspaper or the internet appropriate
to their assigned food group. As a whole class, discuss the items found and answer
whether it is a good choice for everyday or just once in a while.
Number #54, Fall 2006
Revised and reprinted Fall 2009
ONTARIO AGRI-FOOD EDUCATION INC.
P.O. Box 460, Milton, Ontario L9T 4Z1
email: info@oafe.org • (905) 878-1510
www.oafe.org • www.farmsfoodfun.com
A
Apples
B
Breakfast
C
D
E
Corn
F
G
H
I
J
◆ Students can explore the senses of smell, taste, touch, sight and sound by sampling
several types of apples. Generate a list of words that would describe these senses.
Complete a comparison chart.
◆ Have students work in groups to act out the journey that they would take as an
apple from the time they were growing in an orchard to becoming applesauce on a
shelf in the grocery store.
◆ Have students practice sequencing skills by tracing the life of an apple tree.
◆ Discuss with students the importance of breakfast for them: for example, to stay
healthy, to be in a good mood, to feel good, stay alert. Survey the students in the
class to see what they commonly eat for breakfast. Compare Eating Well with
Canada's Food Guide recommendation for healthy meal choices. Have them plan
breakfasts made of healthy foods that come from Ontario farms.
◆ Ask students if they sometimes leave home without having breakfast because they
“don’t have time” to eat. Ask them to list foods that could be eaten on the way to
school.
◆ Discuss which food group corn belongs in.
◆ Brainstorm all the foods that students can think of that are made from corn.
Investigate how one of these foods is made. Compose a pictograph that traces the
steps involved in making this food.
K
L
M
Dairy
◆ Includes all fluid milk products and foods made from milk which has calcium,
including milk, yogurt, cheese, low fat pudding and ice cream. Build your bones
with varied choices throughout the day. Try yogurt smoothies for a break or top
your vegetables with shredded cheese. Students write a recipe for a fruit smoothie,
and then have them make the drink.
Eggs
◆ Students complete a KWL chart on eggs. Brainstorm with students to generate a list
of questions about eggs that students would like to know the answers to. Assign
questions to groups of students who will access internet sites such as www.eggs.ca
to find and record their answers. They will then present them to the rest of the
class.
◆ Read the story Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. Discuss why the friend did not
like green eggs and ham. Ask students if they have ever thought that they did not
like a certain food, but had never tried them. Brainstorm a list of such foods.
Discuss what influences the foods we like. Prepare scrambled eggs for the class that
have had green food coloring added to them. Discuss their reaction.
Farmer
◆ Take students on a field trip to a farm or take a virtual tour of the farm available on
several web-sites such as www.farmissues.com. Write a story about “A Day in the
Life of a Farmer”.
◆ Read a fictional book such as Snore by Michael Rosen and Jonathon Langley or
Click, Clack Moo by Doreen Cronin for a humourous look at farm animals.
N
O
Grains
◆ Students choose a food product made from a cereal grain. Have them research how
that product is made. Students can write or draw the sequence of events involved in
the creation of that food product or act out the path that it takes from the kernel to
the store.
Healthy Snacks
◆ Ask students to bring their favourite snack food that comes in a bag (pre-packaged)
with them to school. Have them read the ingredient list from their labels to the rest
of the class. What ingredients are not mentioned? Is the amount of sugar included?
What ingredients don’t they recognize?
◆ Examine the labels of various fruit products such as juice boxes, apple bags,
applesauce and other fruit cans, and dried fruits. Compare these to the labels on their
other snacks. Examine the differences and compare it to the recommendations on
Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide. Remember that all snacks can be part of a
healthy diet, but some foods need to be eaten less often such as candy and pop, etc.
◆ Use a Venn diagram for students to list healthy foods and snack foods. Have them
put the foods that are both healthy and used as snacks into the intersection area of
the diagram.
Influences on Food Choices
P
Q
◆ Students keep a food journal for a designated number of days. In the journal, they
record what they ate, when they ate it, who they were with and what they were
doing when they ate it. At the end of the designated time, the students compile a
list of all the factors that have influenced their food choices (family, friends, time,
money, advertising, taste, etc). Have them compare their lists with the other
students in the class. Summarize the activity by having the students complete
sentences like; “I like...because...” and “When I am ..... I pick.... to eat because....”
Juggling your Energy Requirements and Food Intake
◆ Different people have different energy needs. Energy is needed for growth,
development and activity. Calories are used to measure energy. Carbohydrates and
fat are important sources of calories.
◆ In class discussion, ask the students what they are going to do after school for the
next week. Print out a grid with the next 7 days and have the students fill it in,
keeping track of their activities (record the duration of each activity). At the end of
the week, have students calculate the energy (in calories) that they expended doing
these activities. Have them compare the calories used with the ones taken in
(calculated from keeping a food journal for the same number of days, making sure
to note the serving sizes).
R
S
Safe Food Handling
T
Turkey and other Poultry
Kale and other Leafy Greens
◆ Dark green leafy vegetables are good sources of many vitamins and minerals that
your body needs to stay healthy like Vitamin A and C and the mineral Calcium.
They are also great sources of fibre. The darker the leaves, the more nutrients the
vegetable usually has.
◆ Students discuss what a plant needs to grow (light, water, soil, nutrients). Students
plant leaf lettuce seeds in an outside garden or in pots in the classroom. Students
keep a log to record plant growth. When the plants are mature enough, pick the
lettuce. Have a class salad. The teacher supplies the lettuce and the salad dressing.
Students each bring 1 ingredient (125 ml /1/2 cup each) to add to the salad.
Labels
◆ From a collection of food labels, have students identify the critical content
information found on food labels (e.g., ingredients, calories, additives, fat content).
Discuss why it is important to have consistent information on food labels. From the
labels, create a list of words and phrases that are used to encourage the consumer
to purchase that product (using a dictionary to define any terms). Have the students
highlight the words that they feel most influence consumer’s purchases.
Meat
◆ The average person in Canada eats 48 kg of red meat every year. Red meat consists
of beef, pork, lamb and goat. Meat provides protein for growth and repair of body
tissues and the B vitamins release the energy from foods and iron that builds the
hemoglobin in red blood cells which transport oxygen and carbon dioxide.
◆ Hamburgers are made from ground meat. While they are traditionally made from
beef, there are a number of red meats that can be used to make your burger. Have
a hamburger sampling in class. Provide different types of ground meat (from a
variety of red meats), different buns, cheeses, vegetables and condiments to make
up your hamburger. The students can help make up the list of possible ingredients.
Provide samples of various cooked red meats for the burgers. Encourage students
to sample the various meats and ask them to rank their favourite three.
◆ Have students invent their own burger. Students will name their own creations.
Writing assignments can vary - e.g. describe how to make a burger, write a recipe
for cooking a hamburger, write a food ad to advertise their new product.
Nutritious Eating
◆ Look through magazines for food advertisements. Display the ads and discuss how
the advertisers have used words and images (photos, art) to try to get you to buy
their products. Discuss with the class whether a good-looking ad means that the
food must be good for them. Have each student create an advertisement for a food
that is healthful. Students should use words and images that really "sell" their
products.
U
V
Ontario Fresh Produce
◆ Fall is the time of festivals, fairs and markets. Fresh-picked food is always available
at your local farmer’s market.
◆ Have the students write a fictional, creative story about their life as a fruit or
vegetable grown in Ontario. Each story should outline the life of that vegetable from
farm to table. Before they start, as a class, brainstorm a list of questions that the
students will need to answer as they write their story about the production and
development of that fruit or vegetable.
◆ Students can then make a farm to table flow chart for their fruit or vegetable.
◆ Place a fruit or vegetable in a mystery container (shoe box, sock, drawstring bag).
Allow a student to reach in and feel it. Have them describe the fruit or vegetable to
the rest of the class so that they can try to guess what it is. Repeat activity with
several other fruits and vegetables.
Pigs
◆ Brainstorm with the class to think of all the words that they think of when you say
the word “pig”. Use these as the basis for a word wall. Arrange the list in
alphabetical order. Initiate a dictionary search. Read a non-fiction book such as Pigs
by Lynne M. Stone. Add to your word wall. Read a fiction book about pigs such as
The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf. Differentiate between the characteristics
of fictional pigs and those of real pigs. Older students can read The True Story of
the Three Little Pigs by John Scieszka or The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad
Pig by Eugene Trivizas and Helen Oxenbury. Compare with the Three Little Pigs and
then discuss points of view in writing.
Quench your Thirst with Water
◆ More than one half of our body weight is water. Water is the most necessary
nutrient of all. People cannot survive for more than a few days without water.
Always satisfy your thirst. Choose water often and be sure to drink more in hot
weather or when you are very active.
◆ Have students investigate what water does in our body, how much water is
recommended every day.
◆ Provide samples of water for students to conduct a taste test. Samples could include
- tap water, well water, bottled spring water, distilled water, filtered tap water, etc.
Before the taste test, have students speculate on which water will taste the best.
Have students try to guess which sample is which water. After the taste test,
compare the labels on bottled water. Which have additives and what are these
additives? Write up the results of the taste test. Have students work in groups to
develop survey questions to discover which type of water is most preferred.
◆ Have students list as many kinds of drinks as they can in order to meet their water
needs.
Rate your Plate
W
X
Y
Z
◆ Good hygiene counts. Store you food safely. Provide students with a variety of
pictures of people handling food. For each illustration, have them decide whether
this is a safe or an unsafe food handling practice. Ask them to state reasons for their
answers and have them correct the unsafe practices.
◆ Have students create a flyer which encourages hand washing, proper food
preparation and storage. Post them in washrooms, lunchrooms, classrooms,
cafeterias and where their lunch boxes are stored.
◆ The term poultry refers to domestic birds raised for meat and meat products. Meat
from chickens and turkeys is high in protein, low in cholesterol and highly versatile.
Have students read a story about the life cycle of the turkey. Provide them with a
sheet containing a list of words from the story. Have the students cut out the words
and put them into an envelope that they have decorated. Use this collection of
words for various activities. Working in pairs, they draw out words from the
envelope and read them to each other. Then they tell what each word means. Using
4...5...then 8...then 10 words... see how many stories they can make up. Make up a
scary one, a funny one, an exciting one.
◆ Read a fictional story about chickens such as Chicken for a Day by Frances Minters.
Discuss the book with the students. Have the children complete a story pyramid
about the book. Discuss how using the story pyramid helped to organize the chain
of events in the book. Students can illustrate their pyramids with scenes from the
book.
◆ Students create a new name for a turkey burger and prepare an advertisement
(newspaper, radio or TV) that would describe this special treat.
Understanding Oils
✔ Word walls, KWL charts, graphic organizers - spider maps, Venn diagrams, story
pyramids
✔ Surveys, interviews
✔ Reading and writing recipes, experiments
✔ Reading, evaluating and writing advertisements, commercials
✔ Reading and understanding labels
✔ Word Patterns, descriptive words, similes, alliterations
✔ Poetry - cinquain verse, lyrics, descriptive
✔ Reading aloud, shared reading, guided reading, independent reading, literature
circles
✔ Debates
✔ Response Journals, letters, diaries, thank-you letters
✔ Story-writing, reader’s theatre, chants, songs
✔ Writing jokes, cartoons, dialogue, slogans, jingles
✔ Pamphlets, multi-media presentations, advice columns
✔ Book reviews, predicting story endings
✔ Research reports
✔ Making mobiles from a story or vocabulary
✔ Collages, comic strips, posters
✔ Writing and performing skits, dioramas, puppet shows
✔ Word scrambles, crossword puzzles, fill-in-the-blanks, matching, scavenger hunts
✔ Categorization games
✔ Making story books
✔ Fact or opinion worksheets
◆ Canola and More - Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide recommends that we
choose lower-fat foods more often. This includes eating lower fat milk products,
leaner meats, fish and poultry and foods prepared with less fat. But children also
need to know that some fat is necessary for good health. “Lower-fat foods more
often” does not mean NO fat. Higher-fat nutritious foods are a concentrated source
of energy. Have students brainstorm dietary recommendations for fat from their
notes. Discuss the implications of too much/too little fat. List the risk factors
associated with heart disease. Brainstorm media messages about fat, cholesterol, and
reducing fat intake. Discuss the concept of “good fat” and “bad fat”, and essential
fatty acids. Have students make a comparison of dietary fats including canola oil.
Discuss why canola oil is a nutritionally well-balanced, healthy choice. Have students
work in groups to make posters or bulletin board displays incorporating the
background information that they have learned with visual reinforcements.
Vegetables
◆ Vegetables add important vitamins and fibre to our diets. They also add variety in
colour, texture and taste to our meals. Assemble a display of vegetables at the front
of the class. Discuss how many of these vegetables the students have tried before.
After conducting some research into one of the vegetables, each student in the class
pretends to be that vegetable, explaining why he/she is important nutritionally and
how one can include him/her in a daily food plan.
◆ Read Stone Soup by Marcia Brown. Make your own class Harvest Soup. The teacher
will provide the broth (it should be vegetable broth for those in the class who are
vegetarians). Each child then brings 1/2 cup of ingredients for the soup (chopped
vegetables, rice, pasta, beans, etc.) to add to the broth. Have them write out the
recipe for their soup. The students then read the recipe aloud.
Wellness
◆ Eat Well. Be Active. Feel good about yourself. Have the class discussion how a
healthy lifestyle will improve the students’ lives. Give them an example of how diet
affects their health and how their exercise affects their health. With coloured poster
board, yarn and a hanger, have students create mobiles. Cut the poster board into
heart shapes and on the first write their name and hang it from the centre top of
the hanger. On the others, write ways that they can achieve a healthy life-style.
Attach these to the hanger as well. Cut a long rectangle and hang it from the
bottom of the hanger. On it, write “My Wellness Lifestyle”.
X for Excess
◆ Avoid eating an excess of foods containing a high amount of salt, sugar, or caffeine.
Limit fat intakes by avoiding deep-fried foods and choose healthier cooking
methods. Limit fruit-flavoured drinks and “pop”.
◆ Discuss with students the effects of sugar on teeth and their general health. For a
demonstration of how “pop” is high in sugar, take an empty pop can, cola or other
favourite, and add sugar by the teaspoonful to equal the amount of sugar in one
can of pop. Have the children count as you add the sugar. (An average can of pop
has 12 – 14 tsp. of sugar.)
◆ Demonstrate a healthy alternative by starting with juice (not a fruit drink) and
adding club soda - in a 1 to 1 proportion. Allow students to taste.
Yellow Squash, Yellow Beans, Yellow Foods
◆ Have students put together a book about yellow foods to eat and drink. Designate a
new page for each food featured. Include big, small, crunchy, soft and liquid foods.
Some additional examples are corn and lemonade. The size of the book, number of
foods included, information given on each food, nutrition information, etc. will vary
depending on the grade level.
Zip
◆ Practice a lifestyle that will give you ‘zip’. Eat the foods that will put ‘zip’ into your
step. Get enough zinc, iron and protein and other nutrients to help you stay healthy.
Nutrients in your food actually help your brain to grow and develop. In groups,
have students research 5 nutrients such as iron, calcium, B vitamins, vitamin A,
vitamin C. Include the purpose of the nutrient in the body and several good food
sources (at least 8 each). With this information, have the students create their own
BINGO cards. Supply each student with a blank BINGO card grid. Each column is
headed with one of the nutrients. In the same box, write the purpose of that
nutrient. In the appropriate 5 boxes below the nutrient have the students write the
name of a good food source. Play BINGO!!!!
◆ Stress to your students that it is important to eat a variety of food from Eating Well
with Canada's Food Guide. Read the story - Gregory, the Terrible Eater by Mitchell
Sharmat. Using Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide, have students work in
groups to discuss how we can make sure that Gregory’s meals are healthy. Review
the number of servings that are allowed from each food group for one day. Then
have students create a nutritious breakfast, lunch and dinner for Gregory.
Strategies for Teaching Literacy
This issue of Update newsletter was researched and written by Brenda Stobo, Educational
Consultant for Ontario Agri-Food Education Inc.
OAFE receives financial support from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
OAFE Resources
Achieving Balanced Choices online
All About Food: Agri-Food Facts
Amaizing Corn - online
Bean Bonanza
Canola: Canada's Oil
Close to Home: A Musical
Adventure in Agriculture and Food
E is for Eggs
Eggtivities
Farms, Food and Fun: An AgriKnowledge Quiz
FightBAC
Freggie's Eat Smart Nutrition Unit
Greenhouse Vegetables
Labelling Literacy
Marvellous Mushrooms
More Than Special Occasions
Nature's Sweet Mystery
Ontario Apples - Nature's Fast Food
Ontario Potatoes
Pizza Perfect
Pump up with Pumpkins
Soyfoods for You!
Talking Turkey Teacher's Kit
The Extraordinary Egg
The Lean Machine
VeggieMania
What's All the Buzz About?
Wheat's New!
Wow! Milk from a Cow
Other Resources
Alfalfabet, A to Z, The Wonderful Words from Agriculture - Carol Watterson, ISBN 978-0-9812317-0-9
Click, Clack, Moo - Doreen Cronin, ISBN 0689832133
Eating the Alphabet - Lois Ehlert, ISBN 0152056882
From Wheat to Pasta - Robert Egen, ISBN 0516207091
Green Eggs and Ham - Dr. Seuss, ISBN 0394800168
Gregory, The Terrible Eater - Mitchell Sharmat, ISBN 0590433504
Growing Vegetable Soup - Lois Ehlert, ISBN 0152325751
Living on a Farm - Allan Fowler, ISBN 0516270850
Milk From Cow to Carton - Aliki, ISBN 0064451119
Planting a Rainbow - Lois Ehlert, ISBN 0152063048
Snore - Michael Rosen; Jonathon Langley, ISBN 0-00-100734-3
Stone Soup - Marcia Brown, ISBN 0689711034
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs - Jon Scieszka, ISBN 0-14-054451-8
The Super Soybean - Raymond Bial, ISBN 0807575496
The Three Wolves and the Big Bad Pig - Eugene Tivizas; Helen Oxenbury, ISBN 0-590-48622-5
The Vitality Approach: A Guide for Leaders- Health Canada, ISBN 0-662-28677-4
The Vegetables We Eat - Gail Gibbons, ISBN 0823420019
The Farm Alphabet Book - Jane Miller, ISBN 0590319914
The Milk Maker - Gail Gibbons, ISBN 0689711166
Three Little Pigs - Paul Galdone, ISBN 089992750
Internet Resources
Canada Food Guide - My Food Guide Servings Tracker - www.hc-sc.gc.ca
Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety www.canfightbac.org
Canola Council of Canada www.canola-council.org
Chicken Farmers of Canada www.chicken.ca
Chicken: A Class Act Video and Teacher's Guide, Chicken Farmers of Canada www.chicken.ca
Dietitians of Canada www.dietitians.ca
Discover Healthy Eating! A Teacher's Resource for Grades 1-8 www.toronto.ca/health/healthyeating.pdf
Eat Smart BC http://eatsmartbc.ca
Eating Well with Canada's Food Guide - www.hc-sc.gc.ca
Eating with Canada's Food Guide - A Resource for Educators and Communicators - www.hc-sc.gc.ca
Egg Farmers of Canada www.eggs.ca
Egg Farmers of Ontario www.getcracking.ca
Farmers' Markets Ontario www.farmersmarketsontario.com
Fresh From the Farm www.freshfromthefarm.ca
Handbook for Canada's Physical Activity Guide to Healthy Active Livingwww.phac-aspc.gc.ca/pau-uap/fitness/downloads.htm/
Harvest Canada www.harvestcanada.com
Health Canada www.hc-sc.gc.ca
Healthy Eating is in Store for You www.healthyeatingisinstore.ca
Mission Nutrition www.missionnutrition.ca
National Eating Disorders Information Centre www.nedic.ca
Ontario Apple Growers www.onapples.com
Ontario Canola Growers www.ontariocanolagrowers.ca
Ontario Veal Association www.ontarioveal.on.ca
Ontario Cattlemen's Association www.cattle.guelph.on.ca
Ontario White Bean Producers www.ontariobeans.on.ca
Ontario Pork www.ontariopork.on.ca
Ontario Agri-Food Education Inc. www.oafe.org
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs www.gov.on.ca/omafra
Ontario Soybean Growers www.soybean.on.ca
Ontario Farm Fresh Marketing Association www.ontariofarmfresh.com
Poultry Industry Council www.poultryindustrycouncil.ca
Power 4 Bones www.powerforbones.com
Teach Nutrition, Dairy Farmers of Canada www.teachnutrition.org
Turkey Farmers of Canada www.turkeyfarmersofcanada.ca
Turkey Farmers of Ontario www.ont-turkey.on.ca
Virtual Farm Tours www.farmissues.com