york | against | cancer
Year 3: Foods we need to keep us healthy (good for our immune system)
Age range: Year 3
Class:
Date:
Rationale:
To help to understand the importance of food for our bodies.
National Curriculum and Framework Ref: Subject:
Science Year 3:
Science
Cross curricular links:
- Pupils should be taught to identify that
animals, including humans, need the
right types and amount of nutrition and
that they cannot make their own food;
they get nutrition from what they eat.
Learning Objectives:
- To understand that all animals,
including humans, need to feed
to grow and be active
- To learn to make simple choices
to improve health and well-being
- To appreciate how food provides
us with energy.
Learning Outcomes:
All children should – Understand which
foods are important
Most children should – understand which
foods keep us healthy and give us the most
energy
Some children should – appreciate that some
foods are more beneficial than others.
WALT – How food affects our health
and a way of life.
Resources:
WILF – I can talk about which foods keep us
healthy.
Sodium Bicarbonate, Mixture of flour with a little sodium bicarbonate, 2 test tubes or
beakers and vinegar. Paper or notebook for a list of food.
www.foodafactoflife.org.uk
Introduction: (Teaching notes in blue, additional notes in black)
The body as an environment
Suggest to the children that the body is like the environment, we need to look after it
and not pollute it.
Ask if they have any ideas how we might pollute our body.
One answer is the food, air and water we put into our body.
In pairs ask them to list all the food they had the day before.
This information will be used later in the lesson.
Group/Class activities:
The body needs looking after like the environment so we need to know what is good for
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack
york | against | cancer
the body and what can harm it.
Explain how the body provides us with energy to live and depending on the quality of
this energy as to what kind of life we will have.
Inside every cell is a power station – ( mitochondria).
This is where energy is made.
We need energy to keep us alive – for every part of our body to work.
What does our body make energy from?
Food, oxygen and water make energy.
How food gets to every cell in the body.
1.
Pretend you are eating an apple, take a bite, chew it and swallow.
2.
Where has it gone? – Stomach (Ask the children to place their left hand on the
left hand side of their body just above the waist line.)
3.
The stomach breaks it up further then it passes into the small intestine – this
is the area below the waist line.
4.
From here the blood picks up the food and carries it all around the body to
every cell (remember we talked about cells in lesson 4.)
How oxygen gets to every cell in the body.
1.
Ask the children to place their hands on both sides of their chest and to
breathe in and then out. Ask them if they noticed how their chest went out then in.
2.
Explain that the lungs are covered with blood vessels and when the air goes
into the lungs it passes into the blood and the blood carries it to every cell in the body.
How water gets to every cell in the body.
1.
ask
2.
Ask them to pretend they are drinking a glass of water. When they swallow it
them where it has gone – stomach.
Then explain that anything we swallow goes into the small intestine and the
blood takes it to every cell in the body.
When the food, water and oxygen get inside the cell the power station mixes them
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack
york | against | cancer
together to make energy so we can blink our eyes, keep our heart and lungs working, for
walking and talking and our brains thinking.
When we do exercise our body needs a lot more energy and so the heart beats faster
so the blood moves faster around our body giving the extra food oxygen and water that
our cells need to make even more energy.
Ask the pupils to run really fast on the spot and then to feel their heart beating faster
– pumping blood faster around their body so they have energy to move so fast.
1.
Place some of the flour and bicarbonate mixture in a beaker, add some vinegar
and watch the reaction.
2.
Place some sodium bicarbonate in a cup add the vinegar and again watch the
reaction
Compare the two reactions.
The second reaction was much more vigorous, causing lots of bubbles and leaving a nice,
clear liquid. The first reaction produced bubbles but left a white sludge. These can be
likened to eating unhealthy and healthy foods.
If we have healthy food and drink and breath in fresh clean air then very little waste is
left and the body can remove it easily.
However if we don’t have healthy food then the power stations produce even more
harmful waste (pollution) and the immune system has to help to remove it. Therefore
we are more likely to become ill because the immune system is busy trying to remove
the waste (pollution) and not having time to sort out any micro-organisms that may
sneak into our body.
Plenary: Check the understanding of the class by asking questions. Such as:
Ask the children, using the list they have compiled of the food and drink consumed
throughout the week, which food and drink do they think would cause the most pollution
in their body and so should only eat in very small quantities.
Foods high in
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack
york | against | cancer
Salt
Sugars
Fats especially saturated fats – butter and lard
Which foods would cause the least pollution?
Natural foods e.g. – vegetables, fruit, whole grains and fish, esp. oily.
Whatever we eat we will always produce a waste but these foods produce the least
waste and therefore will help our immune system do its job. Therefore these foods will
help to protect our bodies from disease and if we are ill, help us to get better.
Extension - See if their reasoning resembles the food pyramid. You could encourage
them to sort in terms of the pyramid. Introduce breads and cereals, fruit and
vegetable group, meat and fish, dairy group, sugar group and fats group. And remind
which foods are for growth and which for activity.
Further activities for children at www.foodafactoflife.org.uk
Assessment
Through questioning, observations and factually correct information in their fact
sheets.
Young and Healthy – Primary Teaching pack